Evidence for related myopathies in exertional heat stroke and malignant hyperthermia.

Malignant hyperthermia may be a human stress syndrome, of which heat stroke is one manifestation. Two men in military service who had episodes of exertional heat stroke, and their immediate family members, were tested for susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia by in-vitro contracture tests on skeletal muscle samples. Muscle from both patients had a normal response to caffeine but an abnormal response to halothane. Muscle from the father of one patient had an abnormal response to halothane, and that from the father of the second patient had an abnormal response to ryanodine. The results indicate that clinical heat stroke may be associated with an underlying inherited abnormality of skeletal muscle that is similar, but not identical, to that of malignant hyperthermia.