The pathopharmacology of malignant hyperpyrexia

Abstract

Malignant hyperpyrexia is a dangerous complication of anaesthesia which occurs in individuals who have an underlying disease of muscle. Two predisposing myopathies have been defined. Studies in susceptible humans and in swine, with an apparently identical myopathy, have shown that when MH muscle is exposed to a precipitating anaesthetic agent there is a sudden rise in the concentration of calcium ions in the myoplasm. The precise nature of the inherited muscle membrane abnormality is not yet known, but pharmacological and biochemical studies indicate that is closely associated with the excitation-contraction coupling mechanism. © 1980.