A method for extracting muscle information from serum creatine kinase measurements--its potential value in the monitoring and management of inflammatory muscle disease.

A major problem in treating inflammatory myopathies is the very limited information available about the processes taking place. For instance serum creatine kinase levels are often dismissed as a means of gaining an understanding of what is happening or a means of monitoring a patient. This paper shall show how serum creatine kinase levels may be used to explore the processes taking place that create muscle inflammation. This is achieved by a detailed longitudinal study. Firstly, considerable laboratory data is gathered such as serum creatine kinase levels and blood pressure information. Secondly, the data is quantified using a scientific model. We shall illustrate the approach through an extensive nine-year study of a particular polymyositis patient. We identify three basic processes that may contribute to muscle inflammation and show how they may be interpreted from specific patient data. Furthermore, details are given for controlling and monitoring the disease to maximise the reduction in the muscle attack while reducing significantly the muscle inflammation and keeping the drug concentration at a minimum to ensure minimum side-effects and how to identify and handle drug-drug, drug-natural product and adverse drug interactions. Examples are given for a natural product, azathioprine and trandolapril.