BACKGROUND Muscle relaxants induce vascular smooth muscle relaxation by inducing synthesis of the prostaglandins that influence vasomotor tone. However, the effects of muscle relaxants on endothelial cells and tissues following injury by reactive oxygen species (ROS) are unclear. We tested the effects of the muscle relaxants vecuronium and rocuronium on impaired acetylcholine (ACh)-induced rela...

1 Muscle weakness is a feature of many illnesses but the present discussion will be confined mainly to conditions in which it is a manifestation of defects in the anterior horn cells, the motor nerves, the neuromuscular junction, or the muscle itself. The pathogenesis of these disorders is often ill-understood and more than one component of the neuromuscular system may be involved. Moreover, kn...

Malignant hyperthermia is an inherited autosomal disorder of skeletal muscle in which certain volatile anesthetics and depolarizing muscle relaxants trigger an abnormally high release of Ca2+ from the intracellular Ca2+ store, the sarcoplasmic reticulum. In about 50% of cases, malignant hyperthermia susceptibility is linked to the gene encoding the skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor/Ca2+ releas...

Temporomandibular dysfunction is a benign pathology, with polymorphic expression and subject to multiple factors that participate in its etiology, which makes the diagnosis of certainty difficult. A wide range therapeutic options are available, including splints, physical therapy, pharmacotherapy (analgesics, muscle relaxants, anxiolytics, antidepressants, etc.)

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a pharmacogenetic syndrome wherein exposure to halogenated volatile anesthetics or to depolarizing muscle relaxants during general anesthesia may trigger a life-threatening hypermetabolic state driven by excessive Ca release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) of skeletal muscle (1). Over 25 y ago, the acute administration of dantrolene was shown to be highly eff...

López, José R., Nancy Linares, Isaac N. Pessah, and Paul D. Allen. Enhanced response to caffeine and 4-chloro-m-cresol in malignant hyperthermia-susceptible muscle is related in part to chronically elevated resting [Ca ]i. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 288: C606– C612, 2005. First published November 10, 2004; doi:10.1152/ajpcell. 00297.2004.—Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a potentially fatal pharma...