British Journal of Sports Medicine 2007;41:283-284
LEADER
MALIGNANT HYPERTHERMIA
Is there a link between malignant hyperthermia and exertional heat illness?
Correspondence to:
Professor P M Hopkins
Malignant Hyperthermia Investigation Unit, Academic Unit of Anaesthesia, St James’s University Hospital, Leeds LS9 7TF, UK;p.m.hopkins@leeds.ac.uk
Accepted 6 January 2007
There is a link between malignant hyperthermia and exertional heat illness
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Malignant hyperthermia is a relatively rare pharmacogenetic disorder inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion.1 It is triggered in previously healthy susceptible individuals by exposure to potent inhalational anaesthetic agents and the muscle relaxant suxamethonium (succinylcholine). The clinical features of a malignant hyperthermia reaction have many similarities to those of heat illness.2 These include a mixed respiratory and metabolic acidosis, tachycardia, rhabdomyolysis and muscle rigidity with progressive hyperthermia. The condition acquired its name because of the high mortality of the early cases.
Exertional heat illness occurs mainly in previously healthy young men during exercise, often in hot and humid climates to which the victim is not properly acclimatised.3 Typical scenarios include military exercises undertaken by personnel recently arrived in a hot country, and long-distance races that happen to coincide with one of the first hot days of the year. In these situations, multiple cases are common. Exertional heat illness
University of Witten-Herdecke, Cologne, Germany;wapplerf@kliniken-koeln.de
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