During patient examination, the doctor uses many tools to come up with the final diagnosis. He starts with checking patient’s history, then he examines him and finally, he can get the help of the lab tests to determine the final diagnosis and develop a proper plan for treatment.
Enzymes have remarkable biocatalytic (have the property of speeding the chemical reaction) properties. They are widely used in diagnostics of various diseases.
Moreover, changes in the enzymes’ activity in plasma mean that there is a disease or an injury in a certain organ. There are two types of enzymes that may be (functional) or (nonfunctional), we will explain the difference between them later in this paper.
Functional enzymes exist in large amounts in the blood in which they play active roles, such as “thrombin enzyme” which acts in the blood coagulation process. While the nonfunctional enzymes are the enzymes that normally exist inside the cells, and when they get out into the blood this means there is an abnormal situation as there is cellular damage as (Creatine kinase).
Enzymes provide insights into various diseases by diagnosis, prognosis, and assessment of therapy. There are many enzymes that have diagnostic importance. However, each enzyme refers to certain organ damage for example: if the “amylase and lipase” are found in blood this means that the patient has pancreatitis while if there is “creatine kinase” this means that the patient suffers myocardial infarction and muscle disease…etc.
Besides, the amount of enzymes released are in proportional to the tissue damage. If there is a lack in the release of the enzyme, this will affect the metabolic pathway and will cause what is called “inborn errors of metabolism”.
Therefore, enzymes can be used as useful tools to diagnose many diseases and to get better understanding of patients’ medical cases.
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