Familial Periodic Paralysis, Myotonia, Progressive Amyotrophy, and Pes Cavus in Members of a Single Family

THE ABUNDANT literature concerning "familial periodic paralysis" brings together a remarkable number of clinical phenomena in addition to experimental and laboratory findings that intrigue both clinician and biochemist. Considerable data relating mineral metabolism and a variety of endocrinopathies to diseases of muscle appear to begin to approach solution of the enigmatic problem presented by periodic paralysis and other diseases of muscle. The present communication has as its purpose the documentation of a family who demonstrate a large number of different myopathic disorders. Furthermore, certain symptoms and signs presented suggest a combined heredity of myopathic and myelopathic or neuropathic disease. REPORT OF THE O. FAMILY, A KINDRED COMPRISING FIVE GENERATIONS ON WHOM WE HAVE HISTORICAL AND CLINICAL INFORMATION Seventeen persons in the O. family have been personally examined (numbered cases in fig. 1), and abstracts of clinical histories and neurological and laboratory examinations appear below. Cases 12 and 15, in addition