Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis with Arrhythmia

IN 1963, Klein and his co-workers1 described a variant of periodic paralysis in which intermittent attacks of muscular paralysis occurred in patients who also had cardiac arrhythmia. Both their patients had normokalemic paralysis. Recently, Lisak et al.2 reported a case of hyperkalemic periodic paralysis with arrhythmia.Case ReportA.M., a 7-year-old boy, was referred to Children's Hospital in 1966 by his physician, who had obtained a history of intermittent fatigue and had noted a cardiac arrhythmia. None of 10 siblings had similar complaints. Pertinent findings included normal heart examination, hypoactive deep tendon reflexes and an electrocardiogram with normal sinus rhythm, . . .