Prognostic value of serum creatine kinase brain isoenzyme in term babies with perinatal hypoxic injuries.

Creatine kinase brain isoenzyme (CK-BB) may be released into the serum after brain injury. Its concentration was measured serially in a group of 80 term infants at risk of perinatal hypoxic damage. Their neurodevelopmental outcome was furthermore assessed at 12 months of age. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that infants with high CK-BB concentration, measured in serum with a new and very sensitive method for enzyme analysis, have more frequently poor short-term outcome (p less than 0.02). These data suggest that early CK-BB measurement may be clinically useful to identify newborns at high risk for neurologic or developmental sequelae.