clinical examples
Last reviewed 01/2018
The role of enzymes in almost all metabolic reactions makes them useful for:
- diagnosis:
- inborn errors of metabolism e.g. glycogen phosphyorylase and McArdle's Syndrome
- severity of disease: prolonged rise of amylase may be indicative of pancreatitis complications
- differential diagnosis on the basis of different enzyme constituents between tissues e.g. for diagnosis of myocardial infarction versus pulmonary embolism, cholestatic jaundice versus viral hepatitis
- use of synthetic enzymes within assay kits for home or laboratory analysis of substrate levels e.g. glucose oxidase in diabetic monitoring kits
- monitoring therapy e.g. aminotransferases as a measure of steroid effect in chronic hepatitis
- treatment e.g.:
- streptokinase in myocardial infarction
- anticholinesterases in myasthenia gravis
- trimethoprim as an antibacterial
- monoamine oxidase inhibitors in depression