THE ENZYMOLOGY OF BALLISTIC WOUNDING

When tissues are injured by a variety of means, the cells are either directly damaged or subsequently undergo degeneration secondary to impairment of their blood supply or other factors. Intracellular components are released into the surrounding tissues by leakage or actual cell disruption. They can then gain access to the intravascular space, where they can be serially sampled and measured. Previous human experience (e.g. myocardial infarction) tends to show that, within limits, the amount of enzyme released (and hence measured) may be proportional to the amount of tissue damaged or destroyed. A number of enzymes were studied in an attempt to ascertain those which would be most useful in studying wounds of goats. The enzymes evaluated included glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT), alkaline phosphatase (AP), creatine phosphokinase (CPK) aldolase (ALD) and glutamic-oxaloaetic transaminase (GOT). Since goat tissues were found to contain little if any GPT, and AP levels were not found to change with a reasonable degree of trauma. Because of this, both were dropped from consideration in these studies. Studies with CPK are still in progress. (Author)