OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinical significance of myocardial enzymes in patients with acute tetramine (TEM) poisoning.

METHODSThe dynamic changes of the activity of myocardial enzymes and ECG were observed in 67 patients with acute TEM poisoning as well as in 67 healthy people for medical checkup at outpatient department as the control group.

RESULTSMyocardial enzymes of the patients with acute TEM poisoning were increased to different extents on the first day. There was significant difference in the activity of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatine phosphokinase (CPK), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), alpha-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (alpha-HBDH) and CPK isoenzyme MB (CK-MB) between the patients and the healthy people in the control group (P < 0.01). There was significant difference in the myocardial enzymes at different time points among the patients with mild, middle and severe poisoning (P < 0.01). The severer the TEM poisoning was, the higher the activity of myocardial enzymes and the abnormal rate of ECG were. The activity of CPK was the earliest to rise with the highest aptitude of fluctuation and the longest time of elevation. The change of the myocardial enzymes was earlier than that of ECG. The abnormal rate of AST, CPK, CK-MB, LDH, alpha-HBDH was 86.57%, 98.51%, 94.03%, 89.55% and 79.10% respectively. The abnormal rate of ECG was 49.3% on the third day of poisoning. Measurement of myocardial enzymes was better than ECG in sensitivity.

CONCLUSIONAcute tetramine poisoning can damage myocardium, which is reversible. CPK is a typical marker for the damage and can serve as one of the important clinical monitoring indices.