[Blood serum creatine kinase in diseases of the cardiovascular system].

Serum creatine-kinase activity was above the upper normal limit in 40-80% of the 632 patients admitted to hospital for angina pectoris and deteriorating essential hypertension. The highest (4-6-fold) increase over the mean control values was associated with myocardial ischemia, paroxysmal tachycardia and hypertensive crises. Intramuscular injections were shown to be unrelated to increased incidence or magnitude of creatine-kinase activation in the examined patients. Creatine-kinase levels were particularly high in cases of cerebral stroke (a 7-fold increase above normal) and alcoholic cardiopathies (a 8-fold increase).