How often are liver function tests normal in acute biliary pancreatitis?
Dholakia K, Pitchumoni CS, Agarwal N. Department of Medicine, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, New York Medical College. Bronx, NY, USA. The biochemical markers of a biliary etiology of acute pancreatitis include an ALT elevation of more than 3 times the upper range of normal and a serum total bilirubin greater than 3 mg/dL. The authors analyzed the frequency of normal liver function tests (bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, ALT, and AST) in patients with biliary acute pancreatitis. In this prospective study data collected for other ongoing studies on AP in the division of Gastroenterology in the last 20 years were analyzed. Serum total bilirubin, AST, ALT, and alkaline phosphatase levels in 269 patients with biliary acute pancreatitis out of 728 cases of acute pancreatitis of various etiologies were analyzed. The biliary etiology was confirmed on the basis of gallstones documented by transabdominal ultrasono-graphy or at surgery. Normal bilirubin, AST, ALT, and alkaline phosphatase lev
