Possible Predictive Tests for Malignant Hyperthermia During Anesthesia

A 17-year-old patient survived an episode of fulminant hyperpyrexia during anesthesia with methohexital sodium, nitrous oxide, halothane, and succinylcholine. Five months later, studies performed in his immediate family revealed high creatine phosphokinase (CPK) values in him and slightly elevated values in his mother, brother, sister, and one maternal uncle and grandmother. The patient, his mother, brother, and sister were also found to have elevated serum pyrophosphate (P-P). Upper borderline levels of lactic dehydrogenase occur at expenses of its fraction III. These tests may have possible predictive value in identifying susceptible patients.