Rheumatoid Arthritis Support

CK is often determined routinely in emergency patients. In addition, it is determined specifically in patients with chest pain or if acute renal failure is suspected. Normal values are usually between 60 and 400 IU/L, where one unit is enzyme activity, more specifically the amount of enzyme that will catalyze 1 μmol of substrate per minute under specified conditions (temperature, pH, substrate concentrations and activators. This test is not specific for the ''type'' of CK that is elevated.

Elevation of CK is an indication of damage to muscle. It is therefore indicative of injury, rhabdomyolysis, myocardial infarction, muscular dystrophy, myositis, myocarditis, malignant hyperthermia, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. It is also seen in McLeod syndrome and hypothyroidism. The use of statin medications, which are commonly used to decrease serum cholesterol levels, may be associated with elevation of the CPK level in about 1% of the patients taking these medications, and with actual muscle damage in a much smaller proportion.

Lowered CK can be an indication of alcoholic liver disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Isoenzyme determination has been used extensively as an indication for myocardial damage in heart attacks. Troponin measurement has largely replaced this in many hospitals, although some centers still rely on CK-MB.




Adapted from the Wikipedia article Creatine kinase, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki