Elevated circulating CK-MB concentration

What it means

The concentration of CK-MB (= creatine kinase MB) in the blood circulation is above the upper limit of normal.

All CK isoforms are encoded by separate nuclear genes and, in most tissues, a single cytosolic CK isoform is co-expressed together with a single mitochondrial CK isoform (mtCK). Cytosolic muscle-type CK (M-CK) and brain-type CK (B-CK) form homodimers or heterodimers, e.g. MM-CK in skeletal muscle, MM, MB and BB-CK in heart, or BB-CK in brain, kidney, spermatozoa, skin and many other tissues. MtCK is situated in the outer mitochondrial compartment and occurs as sarcomeric mtCK (smtCK) expressed mainly in muscle tissue and as ubiquitous mtCK (umtCK) expressed in a large number of other cells and tissues. CK-MB levels can rise upon myocardial injury, CK-MM rises upon skeletal muscle damage, and CK-BB can rise with brain injury.

Rare diseases that can present with this1

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category

Also called: Increased circulating CK MB isoform