Increased lactate dehydrogenase in serum in measles infection

We determined lactate dehydrogenase (LD; EC 1.1.1.27) in serum from 75 sequential measles patients and 105 control patients. In the measles patients, LD was increased to 1147.9 +/- 43.8 (mean +/- SE) U/L, markedly more than in the control group (517.2 +/- 15.0 U/L, p less than 0.001). Both LD-3 and LD-4 isoenzymes were increased, but the concentration of LD-5 was normal. Patients with high LD values (greater than 1500 U/L) had longer hospital stays than did those with lower values (p less than 0.01). Our results suggest that increased LD in serum is a common finding in measles infection and presumably originates from lymphocytes.