Testing for susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia

www.ukmicentral.nhs.uk
 

15th June 2005

Medicines Information Web Site
Trent and West Midlands regional Medicines Information services

An article in today's JAMA discusses newly developed methods for testing patients who may be susceptible to malignant hyperthermia. The authors discuss the clinical syndrome and current thinking on its cause. They note that it often results from a mutation on a specific receptor gene, and that such mutations are found in at least 25% of known susceptible individuals. Mutation analysis as a technique for determining susceptibility has recently become available in the US and is expected to play a central role in diagnosing susceptibility in the future.

JAMA 2005; 293: 2918-24 - JAMA website