Creatine kinase and creatine kinase MB in endurance runners and in patients with myocardial infarction.

Following a 100 km race creatine kinase (CK) creatine kinase MB (CKMB) activities were serially measured in well trained athletes and compared with enzyme activities in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The half-time of disappearance of CK (CKt1/2) was 1.75 +/- 0.70 days in runners who trained within the 1st week after the race, and was 0.81 +/- 0.18 days in patients with AMI, P less than 0.005. CKt1/2 in runners was shorter (1.17 +/- 0.28 days) when no training was performed in the first postrace week. CKt1/2 was linearly correlated with age (P less than 0.01) in the runners but not in the patients. CKMBt1/2 was 1.30 and 1.11 days in two runners and 0.56 +/- 0.10 days in patients with AMI (P less than 0.05). In line with histologic and enzymatic findings in skeletal muscle of long distance runners as reported by other workers, our kinetic data provide further evidence that CK and CKMB are released from muscular compartments in runners other than those in patients with AMI.