Tealysaur

Pathophysiology and Symptomology of Rhabdomyolysis

Figure 1: This figure depicts a urine can with the tea-colored urine associated with rhabdomyolysis. This discoloration is a result of myoglobinuria. Myoglobin being the leakage that comes from the muscle.

Definition and symptoms

According to Sauret JM, Marinides G, and Wang GK, rhabdomyolysis is a syndrome that is potentially life-threatening since it breaks down skeletal muscle fibers and causes leakage of myoglobin to go into one's circulation. Tea-colored urine is normally the first defining symptom that shows that rhabdomyolysis is present. Acute kidney failure occurs in about 15 percent of patients with rhabdomyolysis and is the most serious late complication. Thus, being able to spot this early, as well as immediate management of any complications that may arise, is very important to keeping a patient well.

Cases from drug use

According to Roth D, Alarcón FJ, Fernandez JA, Preston RA, and Bourgoignie JJ, 39 patients admitted to the hospital with acute rhabdomyolysis after the usage of cocaine showed creatine kinase levels of around 12,187 U/L. Since cocaine is a topical anesthetic, it can numb the muscles, but intake of too much may cause muscle to break down instead of just numb. The patients that experienced acute renal failure experienced average creatine kinase levels around 28,084 U/L.

Figure 2: This figure shows creatine kinase's M-subunit. Concentrations up to 100,000 U/L have been recorded depending on how severe the case of rhabdomyolysis is.

Cases from treatments

According to Graham DJ, Staffa JA, Shatin D, Andrade SE, Schech SD, La Grenade L, Gurwitz JH, Chan A, and Goodman MJ, cerivastatin plus fibrate treatments had the highest rate of occurrence of rhabdomyolysis, at a staggering approximated 1 out of 10 patients. Since these are lipid-lowering agents, they might mistake fat on muscle as lipids and destroy muscle at the same time. Similarly, Pierce LR, Wysowski DK, and Gross TP state that a combination of lovastatin and gemfibrozil treatments showed increased creatine kinase levels of 30 times the U/L of patients who only took lovastatin and 20 times the U/L of patients who only took gemfibrozil. These drugs are known for having a risk of occurrence of rhabdomyolysis.

Crush syndrome and Rhabdomyolysis

According to Better OS and Stein JH, rhabdomyolysis is one of the syndromes that is known to come after crush injuries, injuries suffered from being crushed under heavy objects, occur. These injuries tend to lead to rhabdomyolysis as well as disruption of metabolic reactions.

Figure 3: This figure shows us the Blitz of London. Studies of people injured from the collapsed buildings, victims of crush injuries, from this incident helped lead to many discoveries in the underlying mechanisms of renal dysfunction in rhabdomyolysis. Since the buildings collapsed, leaving people crushed by debris inside, people would be stuck under debris until someone could help them. Because of being crushed, a person's muscles would probably start breaking down because of being unable to bare the weight, also causing systems to fail inside their bodies.