Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: The cardiologist examined a patient whose only diagnosis was "elevated creatine kinase." How should we code this diagnosis?

Nebraska Subscriber

Answer: Enzyme levels may rise in a patient with symptoms of a myocardial infarction. Use 790.5 (Other nonspecific abnormal serum enzyme levels) to report these elevated levels. This code signifies a nonspecific, abnormal finding; it does not necessarily mean the patient is having a myocardial infarction.

- If the primary care physician (PCP) encounters these levels when checking a patient for chest pain, for example, the PCP will likely call the cardiologist, and the patient may go to the catheterization lab to see if a myocardial infarction has occurred.