Acid Phosphatase Activity in Nonprostatic Disease

The term serum has been omitted designedly from the title of this section, for we shall be discussing not only alterations of acid phosphatase activity in the serum of patients with nonprostatic disease, but also in the leukocytes of patients with hematologic and hematopoietic disorders and, in some conditions, in certain specialized tissues. 

The possibilities that cryptic prostatic carcinoma may coexist with other diseases or that a high serum alkaline phosphatase activity possesses some residual activity at pH 5.0 tend to be negated by an analysis of these five patients. One female with carcinoma of the breast and osteolytic metastases of the femur, pelvis, and spine had an elevated serum acid phosphatase activity of 4.2 K.A. units, and a second female with an unknown primary but with osteolytic lesions of the ribs and scapula had an activity of 4.1 K.A. units. The serum alkaline phosphatase activities were 17.8 Bodansky units in the first case and 5.2 Bodansky units in the second case, both above 4.2 Bodansky units, the upper limit of normal values by this method. 

One female and one male patient had hyperparathyroidism with elevated serum alkaline phosphatase activities and extensive bone changes characteristic of generalized osteitis fibrosa cystica. In both instances, the serum acid phosphatase activity of the serum fell to normal values after removal of the parathyroid adenoma despite transitorily increased serum alkaline phosphatase activity. The fifth patient was a female with osteopetrosis involving the major part of the skeleton. The serum acid phosphatase was 8.7 K.A. units, the highest in the control series— yet the serum alkaline phosphatase was within normal limits. It would appear, therefore, that some patients with skeletal disease may have a slight but definitely elevated serum acid phosphatase activity, at least as determined by the Gutman method (GIO, G14), which cannot be explained by concurrent prostatic carcinoma or by a spillover of alkaline phosphatase activity to a pH of 5.0. 

Percentile Distribution op Serum Acid Phosphatase in Normal Subjects AND IN Patients with Diseases Other Than op the Prostate Gland  

Condition Number of patients Percentage of cases with serum acid phosphatase Less than 3.0 K.A. 3.0-4.9 5.0-9.9 units K.A. units K.A. units  

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