Serum Enzyme Activity in Late Pregnancy, at Delivery, and During Puerperium

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Abstract
Serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK), a-hydroxybutyric dehydrogenase (HBD), glutamic oxalacetic transaminase (GOT) and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) activities were measured in late pregnancy some days before and during delivery, and 5 days after delivery in a series of 30 mothers and their 15 newborn infants. Furthermore, daily determinations of these enzymes were made in 10 mothers up to the fourteenth postpartum day. Elevated CPK activity in the serum was observed in late pregnancy, particularly during and some days after delivery. LDH and HBD showed some elevation at delivery. GOT had no tendency 30 rise in these circumstances. In newborn infants the serum LDII and HBD activities were about twice as high as those seen in their mothers, but the serum GOT activity was not greater in the umbilical cord than in the maternal serum. It seems possible that the increase of CPK activity in the serum may partly be accounted for by release from the uterus musculature, which was found to have increased CPK activity in pregnancy.