The skeletal muscle relaxant dantrolene inhibits the release of Ca from the sarcoplasmic reticulum during excitation-contraction coupling and suppresses the uncontrolled Ca release that underlies the skeletal muscle pharmacogenetic disorder malignant hyperthermia; however, the molecular mechanism by which dantrolene selectively affects skeletal muscle Ca regulation remains to be defined. Here w...

Previous studies have reported that malignant hyperthermia susceptibility is caused in some families by inherited variation in a gene located on the short arm of chromosome 19 near to, or identical with, the ryanodine receptor gene (RYR1); this is expressed in skeletal muscle as a calcium release channel of the sarcoplasm reticulum. In other families, a gene in this location is excluded, but th...

BACKGROUND Persistent high creatine kinase (CK) levels may reflect underlying subclinical myopathies. In most cases, pathogenesis is unknown and clinical management is unclear. Though clinically asymptomatic, these subjects are potentially susceptible to malignant hyperthermia. METHODS The authors analyzed 37 subjects with persistent elevation of CK without significant weakness or other neuro...

A 17-year-old male received general anesthesia for repair of a torn right knee anterior cruciate ligament. The medical history revealed manic-depressive psychosis, treated with lithium carbonate and sertraline hydrochloride, and asthma for which the patient occasionally used an albuterol inhaler. Induction with propofol, isoflurane, nitrous oxide, and oxygen was uneventful. Anesthesia was maint...

The value of hyperthermia as an adjuvant to radiotherapy in patients with malignant melanoma was studied in a European multicentre trial. 134 metastatic or recurrent lesions of malignant melanoma in 70 patients were randomly assigned to receive radiotherapy (three fractions of 8 Gy or 9 Gy in 8 days) alone or followed by hyperthermia (43 degrees C for 60 min). Overall, the 2-year actuarial loca...

Because they share one pathognomonic sign (major hyperthermia), classic or environmental heatstroke and malignant hyperthermia have often been confronted from the therapeutic point of view. As expected and according to major physiopathological discrepancies between both syndromes, analysis of published data does not support effectiveness of dantrolene in heatstroke despite its significant reduc...

A 15-year-old girl developed symptoms suggestive of malignant hyperthermia during a laparoscopic appendicectomy for acute appendicitis. The triad of masseter spasm, hypercarbia and hyperthermia within 30 minutes of exposure to triggering factors was present and was treated successfully with dantrolene. She is among a handful of cases known locally. The problems faced in the post-acute phase inc...

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) or malignant hyperpyrexia is a rare life-threatening condition that is usually triggered by exposure to certain drugs used for general anesthesia, specifically the volatile anesthetic agents and the neuromuscular blocking agent, succinylcholine. In susceptible individuals, these drugs can induce a drastic and uncontrolled increase in skeletal muscle oxidative metabol...