What does a high creatine kinase level mean?

Creatine kinase or creatine phosphokinase is an enzyme chiefly found in the brain, skeletal muscles, and heart. An elevated level of creatine kinase is seen in heart attacks, when the heart muscle is damaged, or in conditions that produce damage to the skeletal muscles or brain.

What causes creatine kinase levels to go up?

Levels of CK can rise after a heart attack, skeletal muscle injury, or strenuous exercise. They can also go up after drinking too much alcohol or from taking certain medicines or supplements. CK is made up of 3 enzyme forms.

What is creatine kinase a marker of?

Clinically, creatine kinase is assayed in blood tests as a marker of damage of CK-rich tissue such as in myocardial infarction (heart attack), rhabdomyolysis (severe muscle breakdown), muscular dystrophy, autoimmune myositides, and acute kidney injury.

Why would my doctor order a CK blood test?

Why It Is Done This test is often used to look for damage to muscles. For example, it might be used to see if someone who has muscle pain has serious muscle damage. The isoenzyme MM is raised in most conditions that also cause an increase in total CK.

What blood test shows muscle inflammation?

Doctors use a blood test to look for elevated levels of a substance called creatine kinase, which is released into the bloodstream when muscle fibers deteriorate. Elevated levels may mean you have an inflammatory myopathy.

What medications cause high creatine kinase?

Drug interactions between pharmaceuticals metabolised through the cytochrome P450 3A4 pathway, including macrolide antibiotics such as clarithromycin, antifungals such as ketoconazole, and statins (simvastatin >atorvastatin), are a common cause of elevated creatine kinase.

What diseases cause low CK levels?

Creatine kinase levels can be significantly reduced in autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis [86, 87, 88, 89]. The more inflammation there is, the lower creatine kinase levels can get.

What is normal creatine kinase level?

In a healthy adult, the serum CK level varies with a number of factors (gender, race and activity), but normal range is 22 to 198 U/L (units per liter). Higher amounts of serum CK can indicate muscle damage due to chronic disease or acute muscle injury.

Why does creatine kinase indicate muscle damage?

During the process of muscle degeneration, muscle cells break open and their contents find their way into the bloodstream. Because most of the CK in the body normally exists in muscle, a rise in the amount of CK in the blood indicates that muscle damage has occurred, or is occurring.

What diseases cause muscle inflammation?

There are four main types of chronic inflammatory myopathies:

• Polymyositis.
• Dermatomyositis.
• Inclusion Body Myositis.
• Necrotizing Autoimmune Myopathy.
• The four chronic inflammatory myopathies can affect both adults and children.

Can dehydration cause elevated CK levels?

In our study, serum CK and LDH levels, important damage indicators, were higher in the dehydrated group than in the not dehydrated group. Among the dehydrated wrestlers, the high level of serum CK would have affected their performance negatively as well as restricted their movements because of muscle pains.

What can cause high levels of creatine kinase?

An elevated level of creatine kinase is seen in heart attacks, when the heart muscle is damaged, or in conditions that produce damage to the skeletal muscles or brain. Creatine kinase is often incorrectly referred to as creatinine kinase.

What causes elevated CPK level?

People who have recently consumed alcohol, aspirin or used the drug cocaine will almost certainly have increased levels of CPK. Other drugs that can cause: If a patient has not consumed any of the above substances or drugs, this means that their CPK level is elevated because or an injury or stress to the brain, heart or one of the muscle tissues.

What are the main reasons for a low CPK?

Low CPK values can signal potential connective tissue diseases, alcoholic liver disease or rheumatoid arthritis. If the amount of CPK in your body is low, that means there is no significant injury or any reason for your body to need to respond by elevating CPK levels.?

What diseases cause elevated CPK?

Heart attack. CPK levels can be excessively high if a person has suffered a heart attack which has resulted in muscle damage to the heart.