lethal amylase levels?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hey everyone.

Sorta a random question, and I don't have my lab test book, and internet searches haven't really turned up anything, soooooooo I thought I would ask all you lovely smart people!

Have you ever seen a patient with RREEALLLLY high amylase levels? And if so, when do these levels threaten their life, or start to do organ damage?

Thanks y'all-

p

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Hey everyone.

Sorta a random question, and I don't have my lab test book, and internet searches haven't really turned up anything, soooooooo I thought I would ask all you lovely smart people!

Have you ever seen a patient with RREEALLLLY high amylase levels? And if so, when do these levels threaten their life, or start to do organ damage?

Thanks y'all-

p

high amylase levels are associated with pacreatitis, which can be lethal. do some online reseach on it. the pancreas doesn't like to be inflammed, it eats itself!!

:eek:

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Thanks for responding...

I do know that pancreatitis will send the enzyme levels up, I was just curious on the actual numbers that people have seen....

I'm really asking because I, the nurse, was a patient recently, and my amylase levels were 47,000 due to pancreatitis. I didn't know they could get that high :)

That was not a fun time:uhoh21:

But hey, I'm still alive!!

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47,000??????? Good Mother Of God!!!! That's unreal!!!My daughter had Pancreatitis 2 years ago and almost died from it...and her levels were in the high 400's but not 40,000's.....that's insane!!!

My daughter went septic & then had ARDS from the pancreatitis, was on a high freq vent & everything, they were literally at the end of their rope with what they could do for her. I remember specifically something about her lactate acid levels being just about at the highest level possible before death would occur, and caused her organs to go into multi failure...anywho she miraculously got through it to the amazement of all the ICU docs & nurses...so thank your lucky stars you are obviously one of the lucky ones who recovered[bANANA][/bANANA]

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Specializes in Multiple.

It sounds like you are measuring on different scales here... mine was just over 1000 when I had pancreatitis last year, and although it made me very poorly, it did reduce and I am fine again now.

The normal range is 23 to 85 U/L. Some laboratories give a range of 40 to 140 U/L. Note: U/L = units per liter

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Specializes in CCU/CVU/ICU.
Hey everyone.

Sorta a random question, and I don't have my lab test book, and internet searches haven't really turned up anything, soooooooo I thought I would ask all you lovely smart people!

Have you ever seen a patient with RREEALLLLY high amylase levels? And if so, when do these levels threaten their life, or start to do organ damage?

Thanks y'all-

p

I dont think there's a 'lethal level' of amylase. The enzyme is spilled into the blood stream (as a result of pancreatitis, etc.) and then 'picked up' by the lab test. It's an 'indicator'/'result' of a condition, rather than the 'cause' of a condition. Obviously (as seen in your posts) the level can be ridiculously high and a patient can survive. Or...the level can be much much lower and the patient can die. I doubt you'll find anything that says "amylase at this level will kill the patient". The amylase doesnt kill the person, but the underlying disease process can.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Thats got to be a different scale or was a miss print. I have worked ER and seen many a case of both acute and chronic pancreatitis and have never seen a level that high. As I recall the highest i can think of is in the 4,000-6,000 range.

I remember a gentleman about 10 yrs ago who had hemorrhagic pancreatitis and his was around 5,800 and the ER doc said he had never seen or heard a level so high outside of maybe pancreatic cancer. Course we all know the rules change with CA.

Rj

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Thanks for the info...I wasn't sure if amylase itself could cause damage.....the whole thing was pretty crazy; I was pregnant, and evidently it's pretty common for pregnant woman to get gall stones (due to all the estrogen) well, I got gall stones, and would have attacks of acute pancreatitis a few times a month, but then it would subside. All this went undiagnosed (we just thought the pain was a lovely part of being pregnant) until two days after I delivered...i started having that damn "chest" pain again, which radiated to my back, and i started vomiting non stop. So, off to the ER, and after a ct, mri, some xrays, and a bunch of blood work, they finally figured out what the problem. Evidently the gall stones were lodging in the bile duct, inflaming my pancreas. I waited a few days for my pancreas to settle down, then i got my gall bladder out. I had a bit of atelectasis in my right lung, but after a few days all was well. It was after I had already recovered that I heard talks of "lethal levels" So now i'm all curious since this is the FIRST thing that has ever been "seriously" wrong with me, and it looks like it was pretty serious there for a while! I figure if I can labor for 24 hours, then have abdominal surgery and come out all right, I'm doing pretty good :)

Although I'll tell you it wasn't fun being on the other side of that bed rail!

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Hello everyone I was going to post about the subject since out of the blue last week I was hospitalized with pancreatitis. Never had anything like this before, no gall bladder problems. Started with abd pain right upper quadrant. Continued to work for 3 days. Went to ER once and was sent home with pain meds. Next day bad pain and uncontrollable vomiting. After a 3and 1/2 hour wait in Er I was reevaluated. lipase level was 1,000! Too sick to be scared. Was admitted with IV therapy for 4 days and clear liquid diet after 2 days. Now have slight twinges from time to time. Still can't believe pancreatitis was my diagnosis. Nothing showed up on CT scan. I have a follow up with DR. in 2 weeks.

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Thats got to be a different scale or was a miss print. I have worked ER and seen many a case of both acute and chronic pancreatitis and have never seen a level that high. As I recall the highest i can think of is in the 4,000-6,000 range.

I remember a gentleman about 10 yrs ago who had hemorrhagic pancreatitis and his was around 5,800 and the ER doc said he had never seen or heard a level so high outside of maybe pancreatic cancer. Course we all know the rules change with CA.

Rj

Ok everyone,

I got my lab data (double checked), and my amylase was 33,000 and lipase was 11,000, on admit, using the "normal" standards of measurement (U/L)

Now, I have read that pregnancy can raise levels slightly, and as i was only 2 days post partum that might have affected it a bit, but I still can hardly believe they were that high. I'm glad I didn't know it at the time, it probably would have stressed me out even more and hindered my speedy recovery.

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