Elastase: A predictive marker of inflammation and/or infection

• Published in: Journal of clinical laboratory analysis Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 153 - 158
• Main Authors: Mania-Pramanik, Jayanti, Potdar, Shobha S., Vadigoppula, Ashok, Sawant, Shankar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 2004
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Bacterial Infections - diagnosis; Bacterial Infections - enzymology; Biomarkers - analysis; Case-Control Studies; elastase; Female; Humans; infection; Infertility, Female - diagnosis; Infertility, Female - enzymology; Infertility, Female - microbiology; Infertility, Male - diagnosis; Infertility, Male - enzymology; Infertility, Male - microbiology; inflammation; Inflammation - enzymology; Male; Middle Aged; Original; Pancreatic Elastase - analysis; Semen - enzymology; Semen - microbiology; Sensitivity and Specificity; Tissue Donors; Urine - microbiology; Vaginal Smears
• ISSN: 0887-8013; 1098-2825
• DOI: 10.1002/jcla.20015

The present study was undertaken to estimate elastase in biological fluids and assess its usefulness as an indicator of inflammation/infection. Elastase was measured in seminal plasma, serum, urine, and cervical specimens using a specific substrate and was expressed in arbitrary units (AU). It was found to be stable over a period of 3 weeks. The intra‐ and interassay variation of elastase assay was between 2.3 to 6.8% and 7.3 to 9.9%, respectively. The assay was validated by comparing it with other methods that are available for the detection of infections. Sensitivity of the assay indicating inflammation/infection in these samples varied between 70.9 to 87.3%. The results obtained suggest that the presence of elastase in specimens may be used as a nonspecific indicator and could be used to screen inflammation/infection in a limited resource setting. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 18:153–158, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.