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Creatine Kinase BB isoenzyme (CKBB) has been shown to rise in the serum and CSF following acute cerebral injury. To test the hypothesis that brain infarct size could be estimated from the appearance and disappearance of CKBB in the serum and CSF, strokes of varying size were produced in twelve mongrel dogs by silastic emboli. The rate of disappearance, Kd of CKBB (-.00732 +/- 0.001 min-1 mean +/- SE, N = 8) was determined by injecting purified CKBB (25 IU) intravenously then measuring its disappearance. Following the embolic stroke, serum samples were taken hourly for 24 hours and then at intervals for up to 160 hours for measurement of CKBB by radioimmunoassay until the animals were sacrificed. The brains were then removed, fixed in formalin, cut in 2 mm sections and photographed. The area of the infarct was measured using high pad digitizer interfaced with an Apple computer. The infarct size …