Serum creatine kinase levels in pubertal, mature, pregnant, and postmenopausal women.

Abstract

SUMMARY In order to obtain control values for the diagnosis of carriers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, creatine kinase (CK) estimations were performed in two laboratories on 148 healthy teenage girls (of whom 38 were premenarchal and 110 postmenarchal), 133 healthy mature women, 124 pregnant women, and 37 postmenopausal women. These levels were highest in the premenarchal teenagers, and became successively lower in the postmenarchal teenagers, the mature women, and the pregnant women, so that the mean level of the pregnant women was less than half that of the teenagers. The CK levels then rose again after the menopause. If the distribution of CK levels in adult non-pregnant women had been taken as controls for teenagers who were possible carriers for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, then one third of those teenagers classified as carriers would have been so classified incorrectly.Levels of serum creatine kinase (CK) are used in the distinction of carriers of X-linked muscular dystrophies. Therefore, as part of a genetic study of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the West Midlands, CK levels in healthy females were studied. Four groups of controls were investigated: teenage girls (subsequently divided into those who were pre-or postmenarchal); healthy non-pregnant women aged between 20 and 40 years; women who were in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy; and postmenopausal women. We chose these groups in view of the need to define control distributions, including youth, pregnancy, and those ages representative of grandmothers whose status are often of value in defining the time of mutation.The blood was studied on the understanding with the clinicians involved, the girls who gave it, and

Total Creatine Kinase and Its Isoenzymes in Cord Blood of Full Term Newborns

“…The activity was highest in the pre-menarchal teenagers, and became successively lower in the postmenarchal teenagers, the mature women, and the pregnant women, so that the mean activity of the pregnant women was less than half that of the teenagers. The CK activity then observed elevated again after the menopause (62). In another study conducted on Forty-nine normal pregnant women recruited late in the third trimester for serial determinations of creatine kinase (CK) and its MB isoenzyme fraction (CK-MB) at four different times: (a) on recruitment between 36 and 40 weeks gestation, (b) on admission in active labor, (c) immediately after delivery, and (d) on the first postpartum day.…”

Complex segregation analysis and computer‐assisted genetic risk assessment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

“…Variation of the CK activity with age has been the subject of several recent reports. In most studies, in control females the level has been found to follow a Ushaped curve, being higher in childhood than in adult life and rising again slightly in the postmenopausal age range [Zatz et al, 1976;Cherian and Hill, 1978;Bundey, 1979;Smith, Elton, and Thomson, 1979;Percy et al, 1979;Lane and Roses, 19811, though in two other studies, lower CK activity was found in younger controls [Perry and Fraser, 1973;Satapathy and Skinner, 19791. In carriers CK activities also tend to decrease with age [Moser and Vogt, 1974;Zatz et al, 1976;Nicholson et al, 19791, but the precise range for young carriers whose status has not been genetically confirmed and for older women remains unknown.…”

Prenatal deletion detection in a sporadic case of Duchenne muscular dystrophy without genotype information from the affected individual

“…The elevated CK level of our patient and of the grandmother is in agreement with this assumption. The CK value of the grandmother appears to be moderate but must be evaluated in the light of decreasing upper limits of normal in women of advanced age [3,15]. Nevertheless the possibility of a grandmaternal germ line mosaicism [2] should at least be considered, which does not alter the CK levels, but could account for repeated transmission of the disease.…”