Background
Elevated serum creatine kinase (CK) could indicate muscle cell damage
due to muscle trauma, strenuous exercise, or the use of certain drugs
[1-3]. Numerous cytoplasmic components within muscle cells exit
through the damaged sarcolemma, including myoglobin and electrolytes,
which are involved in acute kidney injury (AKI) and possible cardiac
dysrhythmia [1, 4, 5].
Motor signs associated with seizures, including tonic, clonic, and
myoclonic movements, can be considered muscle overuse [1, 6].
Seizures can induce elevated CK levels, which might serve as a marker to
distinguish epileptic seizures from non-epileptic seizures [7-10].
Seizures have been identified as the cause of 4.0% of the cases of
rhabdomyolysis (RM) and 6.1% of the exertional RM cases [11, 12].
One study demonstrated that renal replacement therapy or in-hospital
mortality due to seizures accounted for 6.0% of patients with CK
> 5,000 U/L [13]. Elevated CK levels induced by
seizures have been observed in clinical practice, but the occurrence has
not received much attention, and there are few published reports on this
topic. Given that CK levels can be elevated when seizures occur, this
could lead to severe complications. Therefore, appropriate treatment
should be provided that might improve the prognosis of patients with
seizure onset.
However, rare cases of significantly elevated CK caused by seizures were
reported in clinical practice, and there were no previous studies on the
treatment of seizures induced elevated CK. In this study, we summarized
the characteristics and treatments of six patients with significantly
elevated CK levels induced by seizures. We anticipated that the results
reported here would encourage more attention to this infrequent
complication associated with seizures.