This inability to speak and a sense of impending doom had produced overwhelming anxiety. Once symptoms begin they usually escalate rapidly, and generally resolve within about 14 days. The most typical finding in true NMS is an elevated creatinine phosphokinase, due to the breakdown of muscle tissue during severe skeletal muscle contractions. However, the degree of elevation is extremely variable. Additionally, CPK elevations may be found in other disease entities where muscle breakdown occurs, so elevated findings are not, in and of themselves, diagnostic.
Similar confusion exists in white blood cell measurements.
As with CPK levels, WBC counts may be mildly or markedly elevated. They also identified a clear pattern of a fall in serum iron concentration in the cases reviewed. This finging, however, is not reported in the other reviewed literature.