Clinical examples

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