[Carbohydrate metabolism in hypokalemic periodic paralysis (a clinico-histochemical study)].

The author presets some data on histochemical studies of muscle carbohydrate metabolism in patients with hypopotassemic periodic paralysis during the attack and in intermissions. The most constant and considerable changes were revealed during the paralytic attack and they lead to a decrease of phosphorylase activity, an increase of glycogen content and glucose decrease in the muscular fibers. In intermissions these changes were expressed either minimally or were absent altogether. The initial biochemical effect remains unknown. Undoubtedly, the carbohydrate metabolism is significantly damaged in this disease, and there is a definite parallelism between the severity of the clinical course and the degree of the revealed histochemical changes in the muscles.