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Abstract
This study describes a rapid increase of serum lipase activity during an episode of severe abdominal pain in a female patient with macrolipasaemia and pancreas divisum. Serum lipase activity was persistently elevated in the patient with simultaneously low levels of amylase activity which only increased in association with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Polyethylene glycol precipitation experiments, as well as the results of exclusion chromatography, demonstrated that the high lipase activity was due to a macromolecule of approximately 200000 Da. Affinity chromatography and immunological investigations further indicated that the atypical time-course of lipase activity was not due to alterations of the patient's lipase, but due to lipase-binding autoantibodies resulting in the formation of immune complexes between lipase and immunoglobulin G lambda. Our results show that macrolipasaemia must be considered as a possible cause in patients with unexplained raised serum lipase activity.