Essay On Hyperthermia

A healthy, 25-year-old male receives intravenous succinylcholine and inhaled halothane for anesthesia induction; this patient experiences muscle rigidity, tachycardia, and a fast rise in his body temperature during a surgical procedure. Since the symptoms of this patient are identical to symptoms of malignant hyperthermia, the leading diagnosis of this patient is malignant hyperthermia, a pharmacogenetic disorder that involves hyperthermia, tachycardia, and hypermetabolic reactions of skeletal muscles after exposure to general anesthesia.1 As a pharmacogenetic disorder, malignant hyperthermia is caused by genetic mutations that can cause individuals to have abnormal response to anesthetics and is inheritable since patients will have a 50 percent chance of getting this disorder if they have a family history of malignant hyperthermia.4,5 Most patients who are diagnosed with malignant hyperthermia have a defective ryanodine receptor in skeletal muscles.2 This defective receptor is responsible for a disruption of calcium ion regulation by accumulating calcium in the skeletal muscles, leading to hypermetabolsim.2 This overabundance of released calcium leads to continual muscle contraction in a form of rigidity.7 Continuous muscle contraction requires huge amounts of adenosine triphosphate, leading to adenosine triphosphate depletion; then
Another effective treatment for malignant hyperthermia is Azumolene.35 Because of the presence of para-bromophenyl group, azumolene is more water-soluble compared to dantrolene.35 As a muscle relaxant, azumolene blocks the calcium ion release from sarcoplasmic reticulum in skeletal muscle.17 Specifically, azumolene blocks a certain part of store-operated calcium entry(SOCE) that is associated with ryanodine receptor in skeletal muscle; the study shows that 20uM azumolene leads to a decrease of SOCE in myotubes by 70%.17Therefore, azumolene is effective in reversing the muscle abnormality seen in patients with malignant