[Laboratory tests in acute pancreatitis (author's transl)]

Blood and urine samples of 37 patients hospitalized with a proved diagnosis of acute pancreatitis are reviewed. Value of serum glutamic transaminase activity is the best discriminator between biliary and non biliary pancreatitis (p less than 0.0025). Hypercoagulability is very often observed but there is no correlation between the importance of this abnormality and the severity of the disease. No single specific marker of the prognostic is identified.