Case Study: Malignant hyperthermia

This case study provides the opportunity for students to review the following topics: Metabolism, anatomy of a muscle organ and muscle fiber, neuromuscular junction, muscle contraction, and muscle cell metabolism.

Before class, students prepare to engage with a realistic experience by reading an emotional account of a teenager’s experience with the disorder. Students review specific topics related to exercise, muscle metabolism, and muscle contraction. Students are encouraged to read through the patient brief and consider the targeted questions before class.

In this case scenario, students work together to answer the patient’s questions and explain how a mutation in a single gene is responsible for the patient’s symptoms.

In Part A, students are introduced to the wild-type and mutated gene variants. Students are asked to translate the gene variants and discuss the impact of mutations on protein function. In Part B (part 1), students examine and identify the structures of the skeletal muscle fiber. In Part B (part 2), students consider the sequence of muscle contraction, describing tthe molecular events at each step. While student work together, the instructor pauses several times to review their progress, solves the puzzles, and answers the discussion questions before the class moves on to the next part.

Finally, students take the remaining 30-40 minutes to work together to complete Part C, where they apply their learning to answer questions regarding the case. These responses allow them to integrate the content from each of the previous parts into a coherent and comprehensive understanding of the muscle fibers and its metabolism.

• Define the study of Anatomy and Physiology and describe the hierarchical organization of the human body into chemicals, cells, tissues, organs and systems.
• Describe the structure and functions of the animal cell.
• Describe the gross anatomy of a muscle organ and the microscopic anatomy of a muscle fiber.
• Describe the neuromuscular junction.
• Outline the sequence of events between the arrival of a nerve impulse and contraction of a muscle fiber.
• Compare aerobic and anaerobic respiration in muscle cells and state the biochemical causes of muscle fatigue.