[Examination of the family of a patient susceptible to anesthetic malignant hyperthermia].

The familial nature of anaesthetic malignant hyperthermia must lead to the search for susceptibility in other members of the family of a sensitive subject. According to the literature, only in vitro studies of contraction characteristics of biopsied skeletal muscle fibres exposed to caffeine or halothane are of predictive value. Four members of the family of a patient who died as a result of malignant hyperthermia were investigated. The results expressed in accordance with the criteria defined by the European group on malignant hyperthermia, coupled with a histoenzymatic study, defined three of the subjects as HMN (negative) and one subject as HM (c) (equivocal or intermediate).