Benign Pancreatic Hyperenzymemia, Also Known as Gullo’s Syndrome

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Benign pancreatic hyperenzymemia, also known as Gullo’s syndrome, is a little-known syndrome first described in 1996 in patients studied for an elevation of pancreatic enzymes while otherwise being asymptomatic. We describe the case of a 2-year-old patient who was found to have significant elevation of amylase and lipase levels while he was asymptomatic. Blood tests and imaging tests were performed to determine the etiology, but they gave normal results. The enzyme elevation can even be 10 times the normal value of the enzyme, and only 1 enzyme may elevate, although most often all pancreatic enzymes are elevated. The etiology is not known, although several hypotheses have been suggested. This enzyme elevation is described both in adults and children and also sporadically or with a familial pattern. Knowledge of it can limit the performance of the multiple complementary test, some of which are very invasive in patients who have elevated pancreatic enzymes while they are asymptomatic. It knowledge allows us to confirm a benign prognosis about it and reassure the family about this disease and that in the end it will not require aggressive treatments such as surgery or chemotherapy.</jats:p>

Gullo’s Syndrome – case report

“…which may be verified in medical literature in the future [1] The day-to-day fluctuations with transient normalization have been observed in many clinical researches [2]. In some cases (5% of BPH patients), only one of the PE, amylase or lipase, is elevated [2,7,8]. According to the researchers, no matter which enzyme is elevated, it requires further investigation.…”

Familial Gullo’s Syndrome: a clinical case report

“…Unlike the very extensive Italian cases, reports in other countries are limited. In literature, few cases are reported in Japan [4,11], Belgium [14], USA [17,33], India [34], Taiwan [35], Brazil [36], Austria [37], Poland [38], Ukraine [39], Australia [40], Spain [41,42], Venezuela [43], Morocco [44], and Germany [45].…”

“…Pancreatic hyperenzymemia can appear at almost every age: the ratio of affected men and women is 1.5:1. It is a rare finding in children: only a few sporadic cases have been described in the literature [41,[47][48][49].…”

Klug entscheiden – Perspektiven: Was sind die entscheidenden Ansätze (Key Questions) für die Zukunft?

“…Die gleichzeitige Bestimmung von Lipase und Amylase bei einer akuten Pankreatitis führt zu keinem diagnostischen Zugewinn [9,10]. Bei asymptomatischen Patienten sollte die Bestimmung dieser Serumenzyme unterbleiben, da ein erhöhter Wert zu einer unnötigen Verunsicherung des Patienten und weiteren, u. U. invasiven Untersuchungen führt [11].…”