title: Causes of hypoamylasaemia in a hospital population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We noted serum amylase activity results in our laboratory that fell below the lower reference limit, although there was no obvious explanation for this and the literature on this topic is relatively sparse.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied hospital laboratory requests and reports of individuals showing hypoamylasaemia over a one-year period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We report one of the few studies to look at hypoamylasaemia in a hospital population. We found that 5.4% of the hospital serum amylase activity results were below the reference range quoted by our laboratory.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Some of the associations we observed with hypoamylasaemia were diabetes mellitus, cystic fibrosis, hypertriglyceridaemia and use of the antibiotic gentamicin. We suggest that clinicians and laboratories should be aware of the causes of hypoamylasaemia to aid interpretation of abnormally low amylase activity in their patients.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Clinical Biochemistry , Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust , SE London, UK and St Thomas' Hospitals, London SE1 9RT UK .
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Curd
authors.forename: Martin A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Crook
mesh_terms: D000681:Amylases / Q000097:blood*; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000009:adverse effects; D001796:Blood Protein Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000201:enzymology; D005260:Female; D005839:Gentamicins / Q000009:adverse effects; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007333:Insulin Resistance; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D005839:Gentamicins; D000681:Amylases
keywords: Amylase; diabetes mellitus; gentamicin; lipaemia; pancreas