Clinical evaluation of an immunoinhibition procedure for creatine kinase-MB.

We have clinically evaluated the Dade "Cardiozyme" immunoinhibition procedure for determination of creatine kinase isoenzyme MB (CK-MG) in 71 patients who were suspected of having had an acute myocardial infarction. Electrophoresis for CK-MB was also carried out. On the basis of diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for myocardial infarction, we found the Dade procedure for CK-MB to be somewhat inferior to electrophoresis. In 11 patients for whom the time of infarction was known, we observed normal CK-MB results for two of them by both immunoinhibition and electrophoresis during the first 24 h, but subsequently could detect abnormal CK-MB results by both methods. Thus in some patients such data are not helpful for making a diagnosis in the first 24 h. The Dade procedure is easy to perform, but lacks sensitivity in the region of low CK-MB activity, requires a very stable spectrophotometer, is imprecise, and produces negative numerical results in patients without myocardial infarction.