Skeletal muscle channelopathies

Ion channelopathies have common clinical features, recurrent patterns of mutations, and almost predictable mechanisms of pathogenesis. In skeletal muscle, disorders are associated with mutations in voltage-gated Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, and Cl⁻ channels leading to hypoexcitability, causing periodic paralysis and to hyperexcitabilty, resulting in myotonia or susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia. Received: 30 April 2002, Accepted: 21 May 2002 Correspondence to F. Lehmann-Horn