What causes serum lipase to increase in pancreatitis?

Answer 1

Acute pancreatitis: Destruction of pancreatic acinar tissue results in the escape of pancreatic enzymes into the pancreas and peritoneal cavity. The enzymes enter the blood by way of lymphatics or capillaries with subsequent elevation of serum levels. Increases of at least 2 x normal are seen in pancreatitis. In dogs, lipase increases within 24 hours and peaks (at a higher level than amylase) at 2-5 days. Increases of 3 times normal support a diagnosis of pancreatitis more strongly than more moderate increases, which may be accounted for by non-pancreatic causes. Lipase may be normal in up to 28% of dogs with pancreatitis.

In the cat, lipase is not consistently elevated in pancreatitis. It was hoped that measurement of trypsin-like immunoreactivity (TLI) would be better for diagnosis in cats, as high values are seen in dogs with pancreatitis and are very useful for diagnosis in dogs with normal lipase values. However, recent data suggests that TLI values are not consistently increased in cats with confirmed pancreatitis, limiting the usefulness of this test to cats with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.

I got this from this page:

http://diaglab.vet.cornell.edu/clinpath/modules/chem/lipase.htm