Serum enzyme studies in muscle disease: Part I Variations in serum creatine kinase activity in normal individuals

Abstract

It has been recognized for many years that in patients with muscular dystrophy there are sub- stantial increases in the activity of certain enzymes, e.g., aldolase and the transaminases, in the serum. Extensive surveys by several workers have shown that the changes are particularly striking in cases of the Duchenne type muscular dystrophy (decreasing as the disease progresses), smaller in the limb-girdle and facio-scapulo-humeral types of dystrophy, and slight or absent in cases of neurogenic muscular weakness and wasting (Dreyfus and Schapira, 1955;