Table 2
Creatine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB) CK-MB is mostly found in the myocardium and is a diagnostic marker for
myocardial damage[25], in fact it mainly exists in the outer plasma
layer of myocardial cells, and is the most specific enzyme in the
myocardial enzyme spectrum for clinical diagnosis of myocardial injury.
It may have a prognostic value in COVID-19 infection because patients
with high levels require urgent intervention and had poor
prognosis[3], [21].
Elevated serum CK-MB, in fact, might indicate more organ damages and a
higher immune response in patients with COVID-19, so additional
monitoring should be conducted on these patients with abnormal serum
CK-MB levels[26].
A meta-analysis of relation of CK-MB to risk of mortality in
COVID-19[27], shown that patients with severe pneumonia have varying
degrees of myocardial injury due to hypoxemia and toxicity of the
pathogen[28], [29]. Furthermore, overall results showed that the
elevated levels of CK- MB were significantly associated with an
increased risk of the mortality in COVID-19 infected patients. Also a
previous meta-analysis by Li et al[30] observed that the elevated
CK-MB levels were associated with the severity of COVID-19 patients.
Other Chinese studies showed patient with COVID-19 infection had high
CK-MB levels associated with in-hospital death, compared to
non-hospitalized patients[8], [10], [31], [32] (Table
3).