Pancreatitis is the most common disease of the pancreas. Difficulties in early recognition of pancreatitic diseases, particularly chronic pancreatitis, are the reason of the search for new diagnostic methods. In our earlier studies we have shown that the determination of arginase activity in serum of patients with pancreatic cancer may be useful test in preoperative diagnosis of this cancer. The aim of this study was to asses the arginase activity in serum of patients with acute and chronic pancreatitis before and after medical treatment.
Material and methods: Arginase activity was studied in serum of 10 patients with acute and 10 patients with chronic pancreatitis obtained before, after and/or during the medical treatment.
Results: The increase of arginase activity was observed in both studied groups before the medical treatment, and a statistically significant decrease after the treatment (p < 0,05). There were not significant differences between arginase activity in acute and chronic pancreatitis.
Conclusion: Arginase activity determination seems to be useful in monitoring the treatment of patients with acute and chronic pancreatitis.