Muscle Toxicity of Drugs: When Medication Turns Physiology into Pathophysiology.

Muscle Toxicity of Drugs: When Medication Turns Physiology into Pathophysiology. Physiol Rev. 2019 Nov 21;: Authors: Janssen L, Allard N, Saris C, Keijer J, Hopman MTE, Timmers S Abstract Drugs are prescribed to manage or prevent symptoms and diseases, but may sometimes cause unexpected toxicity to muscles. The symptomatology and clinical manifestations of the myotoxic reaction can vary significantly between drugs and between patients on the same drug. This poses a challenge on how to recognize and prevent the occurrence of drug-induced muscle toxicity. The key to appropriate management of myotoxicity is prompt recognition that the symptoms of patients may be drug-related and to be aware that inter-individual differences in susceptibility to drug-induced toxicity exist. The most prevalent and well-documented drug class with unintended myotoxicity are the statins, but even today new classes of drugs with unintended myotoxicity are being discovered. This review will start off by explaining the principles of drug-induced myotoxicity and the different terminologies used to distinguish between grades of toxicity. The main part of the review will focus on the most important pathogenic mechanisms by which drugs can cause muscle toxicity, which will be exemplified by drugs with high-risk of muscle toxicity. This will be done by providing information on the clinical and laboratory features, muscle electromyography and biopsy findings, patholo...
Source: Physiological Reviews - Category: Physiology Authors: Tags: Physiol Rev Source Type: research