High CA 19-9 levels in benign biliary tract diseases. Report of four cases and review of the literature

Konstantinos H. Katsanos; Margarita Kitsanou; Dimitrios K. Christodoulou; Epameinondas V. Tsianos

doi:10.1016/s0953-6205(02)00002-x

High CA 19-9 levels in benign biliary tract diseases. Report of four cases and review of the literature

Eur J Intern Med. 2002 Mar;13(2):132-135. doi: 10.1016/s0953-6205(02)00002-x.

Authors

Konstantinos H. Katsanos¹, Margarita Kitsanou, Dimitrios K. Christodoulou, Epameinondas V. Tsianos

Affiliation

¹ Section on Gastroenterology, Division of Internal Medicine, Medical School, University of Ioannina, 451 10, Ioannina, Greece

PMID: 11893472
DOI: 10.1016/s0953-6205(02)00002-x

Abstract

For years, CA 19-9 has been proposed as a marker for epithelial-type gastrointestinal cancers, even though it is well known that its diagnostic specificity is low. Here we describe cases of extremely high CA 19-9 levels in benign biliary tract diseases. The first case involved a 77-year-old male patient with choledocholithiasis and jaundice who was found to have CA 19-9 levels of 98,628 UI/ml. The second case was a 63-year-old male patient with autoimmune cholangitis and a CA 19-9 level of 250 IU/ml. The third case was a 74-year-old male patient with cholelithiasis and choledocholithiasis who developed acute cholangitis. CA 19-9 levels were elevated to 14,950 UI/ml during the episode. The fourth case involved a 73-year-old man with biliary colic and jaundice following an acute open cholecystectomy procedure who had a transient 100-fold increase in CA 19-9 (2230 IU/ml).