The term "muscle enzymes" refers to what medical professionals call cardiac enzymes. The muscle enzyme test is one of a number that a doctor may order for someone suffering from chest pain, shortness of breath, profuse sweating, unexplained fainting or extreme nausea. Essentially, this test looks for an increase of certain enzymes associated with the heart. The level of these enzymes gives the doctor an idea of the health of your heart.
Enzymes
To understand the relationship between heart health and muscle enzymes you need to know a little more about enzymes. Enzymes are proteins that promote a chemical reaction. The human body produces a number of enzymes that work to speed up things such as digestion. Chemically, this makes enzymes catalysts, things that trigger a complex chemical reaction. The website Chem4kids.com uses the lock and key analogy to explain the process. When the right enzyme hits the right chemical reaction, it works to unlock it. Just as it takes a specific key to unlock a door, it takes the correct enzyme to start a chemical reaction.
Muscles
Many functions of the body require a chemical reaction to work properly. For example, when you decide to lift your arm over your head, there is a chemical reaction in the brain that sends information to the muscles in your arm. Another chemical reaction causes the muscles to lift the arm. Specialized enzymes provide the triggers that cause the chemical reaction that contracts and expands the muscles in order to make them rise.
Heart
There are three types of muscles in the human body: skeletal, smooth and cardiac, according to Biology Online. It is the cardiac muscles that make up the structure of your heart. A cardiac muscle is different than the muscles in your arm. The movement of cardiac muscle happens autonomically, or without you thinking about it. This is why your heart beats even though you don't consciously control it. Like all muscles, the movement of your heart requires a chemical reaction and enzyme triggers. These are what doctors look for when they test run some blood tests.
Test
The muscle enzyme test, or cardiac enzyme test, will tell the doctor if there is damage to your heart. MayoClinic.com explains that when the heart leaks enzymes into the blood, this is an indicator of damage to the structure of the cardiac muscle. Prior to surgery or when you go to the emergency room, a doctor might order blood drawn from your arm. This blood goes to the laboratory and a technician tests it for cardiac enzymes. The presence of cardiac enzymes in blood means something has happened to your heart and it may not be working correctly.
Diagnosis
One likely causes of an increase of muscles enzymes in the blood is myocardial infarction, or a heart attack. When a clot blocks flow to the heart through the coronary artery, the interruption of blood causes muscle death and damage to the structure of the heart. This damaged tissue leaks cardiac enzymes into the blood that can be detected through a laboratory test. An increase in muscle enzymes in the blood indicates you may have had a heart attack.
