enzyme analysis

enzyme analysis, in blood serum, measurement of the activity of specific enzymes in a sample of blood serum, usually for the purpose of identifying a disease. The enzymes normally are concentrated in cells and tissues where they perform their catalytic function; in disease, however, certain enzymes tend to leak into the circulation from the injured cells and tissues. More than 50 enzymes have been found in human serum; in routine clinical practice, the most common ones include (1) amylase, a starch-digesting enzyme that originates chiefly from the pancreas and salivary glands; its serum activity is usually elevated in the early stages of acute inflammation of the pancreas, in obstruction of the pancreatic duct, and in mumps; (2) lipase, a fat-digesting enzyme that also originates in the pancreas and that shows the same clinical variations as amylase in disorders involving the pancreas; (3) alkaline phosphatase, an enzyme found in most body tissues, notably in bone and liver, and that usually shows elevated serum values in such conditions as Paget’s disease (inflammation of the bone) and osteomalacia (softening of the bone), as well as in hepatitis and obstructive jaundice; (4) acid phosphatase, an enzyme found in most body tissue but in unusually high concentration in the adult prostate gland; it is released into the circulation in metastatic cancer of the prostate; (5) peptidases, a group of enzyme-digesting proteins found in greater concentrations in the serum in conditions associated with excessive tissue breakdown, such as shock, fever, and traumatic injury, and in anemia resulting from fragility or increased destruction of the red blood cells; (6) transaminases, namely, glutamic-aspartic transaminase and glutamic-alanine transaminase, enzymes that are found in most body tissues, but in particularly high concentrations in the liver and heart tissue, and are usually substantially increased in serum in disorders involving the liver, such as hepatitis, and the heart, such as myocardial infarction.

As with other types of blood analyses, enzyme assays have been automated with autoanalyzers, which make it possible to obtain data on the serum activity of up to 20 or more enzymes simultaneously on one sample of serum.