Clinical Information

Total Lactate Dehydrogenase (LD):

LD activity is present in all cells of the body with highest concentrations in heart, liver, muscle, kidney, lung, and erythrocytes. As with other proteins used as tissue-function markers, the appearance of LD in the serum occurs only after prolonged hypoxia and is elevated in a number of clinical conditions including cardiorespiratory diseases, malignancy, hemolysis, and disorders of the liver, kidneys, lung, and muscle.

Isoenzymes:

LD is a tetrameric cytoplasmic enzyme, composed of H and M subunits. The most usual designation of the isoenzyme is LD-I (H4), LD-II (H3M), LD-III (H2M2), LD-IV (HM3), and LD-V (M4). Tissue specificity is derived from the fact that there is tissue-specific synthesis of subunits in well-defined ratios. Most notably, heart muscle cells preferentially synthesize H subunits, while liver cells synthesize M subunits nearly exclusively. Skeletal muscle also synthesizes largely M subunits so that LD-V is both a liver and skeletal muscle form of LD. The LD-I and LD-V forms are most often used to indicate heart or liver pathology, respectively.

LD-I appears elevated in the serum about 24 to 48 hours after a myocardial infarction (MI), but is generally not as useful as troponin or creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) for detection of MI, unless the MI occurred at least 24 hours prior to testing. Normally, LD-II is greater than LD-I; however, when a MI has occurred, there is a "flip" in the usual ratio of LD-I/LD-II from <1 to >1 (or at least >0.9). Use of the ratio for evaluation of patients with possible cardiovascular injury has largely been replaced by TPNT / Troponin T, Serum.

The LD-V form is pronounced in patients with either primary liver disease or liver hypoxia secondary to decreased perfusion, such as occurs following an MI. However, LD-V is usually not as reliable as the transaminases (eg, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase) for evaluating liver function. LD-V also may be elevated in muscular damage and diseases of the skin.

Although it does not appear to cause or be associated with any symptoms or particular diseases, the presence of macro-LD (LD combined with an immunoglobulin) can cause an idiosyncratic elevation of total LD.