Acute Muscular Syndrome in Chronic Alcoholism

Alcohol and Skeletal Muscle in Health and Disease

“…5 More empirical reports that alcohol or its metabolites could directly or indirectly lead to adaptations of SKM mass and function and that there are differences with acute and chronic alcohol misuse were formulated in the 1950s and 1960s. [6][7][8] SKM mass is maintained by the balance of anabolic (protein synthesis) and catabolic (protein breakdown) signaling. Major anabolic stimuli-including amino acids, insulin, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)-and mechanical loading promote protein synthesis by converging on the mechanistic/ mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway (reviewed by Bourgeois et al and Steiner et al ).…”

Hypomagnesaemia and Muscle Electrolytes and Metabolites

“…Segmental muscle necrosis has been reported in chronic alcoholism in the acute muscular syndrome which follows an intensive alcohol debauche (1 1, 15,20,24,38,40,44). A chronic form of muscular myopathy in the alcoholic, presenting chiefly as muscular weakness and atrophy, particularly in the proximal muscle group, has been described (1 1, 14,20,24,38,41). Subclinical muscle damage in the alcoholic was evidenced by Nygren (35) and lowering of the isometric (static) muscle strength in the proximal muscles, particularly in the quadriceps femoris muscle, in chronic alcoholics by Carlsson (7) and Carlsson et al (8).…”

Alcohol and the Blood

“…The toxic effects of alcohol on the liver and nervous system have been known for a long time. During the sixties reports have been published of alcoholic cardiomyopathy (Alexander 1967), damage to skeletal muscle, bath acute (Hed et al 1962) and chronic (Ekbom et a1 1964) and finally blood disease. Many problems still remain unsolved, especially the question whether alcohol has a direct toxic effect or acts indirectly through impaired nutrition, and why the effects are so selective.…”