Diagnosis and follow-up of parotitic pancreatitis by means of the determination of serum alpha-amylase activity.

In 1972 and 1973 the authors studied the problems of involvement of the pancreas in mumps. As the laboratory criterion they used the determination of serum alpha-amylase activities by Babson's method, which proved to be satisfactory and valuable. The incidence of pancreatitis in mumps has risen in recent years, as seen from the greater frequency of clinical signs of pancreatitis and pathologically elevated serum alpha-amylase activities. In our series of 190 patients, clinical signs of pancreatitis were present in 42% of all the patients with mumps. In some of these patients, the signs of pancreatitis did not appear until a few days after the onset of the disease. It is therefore desirable to put all patients with mumps on a suitable diet, to follow them up for a long period, including the convalescent phase, and to check their alpha-amylas activities from time to time.