Importance of coronary collateral circulation for kinetics of serum creatine kinase in acute myocardial infarction.

The effect of coronary collateral perfusion on the kinetics of creatine kinase (CK) was examined in 32 patients undergoing intracoronary thrombolysis within 6 hours after the onset of a first acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Blood sampling for CK was performed every 2 to 4 hours for a period of 72 hours after AMI. The cumulative CK release was determined using the integrated appearance function curve with the individual disappearance rate. In 19 patients in whom thrombolysis was successful (group A), time to peak CK level was 11 +/- 1 (standard error of the mean) hours after AMI and cumulative CK release was 2,599 +/- 424 U/liter. In 6 patients who had a significant collateral circulation to the infarct-related coronary artery and unsuccessful reperfusion (group B), the time to peak CK was 16 +/- 1 hours (p less than 0.05 compared with group A) and cumulative CK release was 1,897 +/- 478 U/liter (difference not significant compared with group A). In the remaining 7 patients, with neither recanalization nor significant collateral perfusion group C, time to peak CK was 21 +/- 1 hours and significantly (p less than 0.05) longer than groups A and B. Cumulative CK release (2,707 +/- 776 U/liter) was not significantly different from groups A and B. Thus, collateral perfusion is an important determinant of the CK time-activity curve during AMI. Early peaking of CK levels does not reliably identify spontaneous or drug-induced recanalization of the infarct-related coronary artery.