Incidence and clinical spectrum of rhabdomyolysis in general neurology: a retrospective cohort study

The objective of this retrospective cohort study was to evaluate demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with rhabdomyolysis as defined by a serum creatine kinase (sCK) activity > 950 U/L. A total of 248 patients were recruited from the Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, between 01/2000 and 12/2017, with a median sCK activity of 2,160 U/l (IQR 1,342–4,786). Seizures (31.9%), illicit drugs/alcohol (9.7%) and exercise (8.5%) were the most common trigger factors. Rhabdomyolysis incidence rates in specific neurological diseases as estimated by the ratio between rhabdomyolysis cases and the total number of cases with the corresponding disease were highest in myopathies (49.8/1,000 person-years, 95% CI 32.3–67.4), followed by epilepsy (16.4/1,000 person-years, 95% CI 12.8–20.0) and stroke (11.9/1,000 person-years, 95% CI 8.4–15.4). The half-life of sCK activity was 1.5 days in the total cohort. In myopathies, sCK activity was significantly higher as compared to other disease entities 7 days after the peak measurement (p = 0.0023). Acute kidney injury (AKI) developed in 18 patients (7.3%) with no AKI-related deaths during the study period. In conclusion, rhabdomyolysis occurred in a broad range of neurological entities but was associated with a favorable prognosis in most cases rarely resulting in AKI and death.