M. Christiansen et al., ALPHA-FETOPROTEIN AND THE ACUTE-PHASE RESPONSE - A STUDY USING ACUTE PELVIC INFLAMMATORY DISEASE AS A MODEL SYSTEM, Clinica chimica acta, 235(1), 1995, pp. 71-79
Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is used as a tumor marker for hepatomas and ge
rm cell tumors. In healthy non-pregnant adults the serum concentration
(S-AFP) is very low and we examined whether it was affected when the
acute phase response was activated, using patients with acute pelvic i
nflammatory disease (PID) as a model system. In 70 PID patients the me
dian S-AFP was 1.2 kIU/1 (range: 0.5-5.9 kIU/1), within the normal ran
ge. S-AFP did not correlate with the clinical grade of disease nor wit
h the serum concentrations of acute phase reactants and albumin. Thus,
S-AFP is not significantly affected by activation of the acute phase
response and presence of infection should not per se interfere with th
e use of S-AFP as a tumor marker. However, a negative correlation was
found with the serum concentration of alpha-2-macroglobulin (P=0.05),
but whether this has any biological significance remains to be clarifi
ed.