Early type II fiber atrophy in intensive care unit patients with nonexcitable muscle membrane

Intensive care unit-acquired weakness indicates increased morbidity and mortality. Nonexcitable muscle membrane after direct muscle stimulation develops early and predicts intensive care unit-acquired weakness in sedated, mechanically ventilated patients. A comparison of muscle histology at an early stage in intensive care unit-acquired weakness has not been done. We investigated whether nonexcitable muscle membrane indicates fast-twitch myofiber atrophy during the early course of critical illness.

Prospective observational study.

Two intensive care units at Charité University Medicine, Berlin.

Patients at increased risk for development of intensive care unit-acquired weakness, indicated by Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment scores ≥8 on 3 of 5 consecutive days within their first week in the intensive care unit.

None.

Electrophysiological compound muscle action potentials after direct muscle stimulation and muscle biopsies were obtained at median days 7 and 5, respectively. Patients with nonexcitable muscle membranes (n = 15) showed smaller median type II cross-sectional areas (p < .05), whereas type I muscle fibers did not compared with patients with preserved muscle membrane excitability (compound muscle action potentials after direct muscle stimulation ≥3.0 mV; n = 9). We also observed decreased mRNA transcription levels of myosin heavy chain isoform IIa and a lower densitometric ratio of fast-to-slow myosin heavy chain protein content.

We suggest that electrophysiological nonexcitable muscle membrane predicts preferential type II fiber atrophy in intensive care unit patients during early critical illness.