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Profound muscle weakness and hypokalemia due to clay ingestion
H W Severance1, T Holt, N A Patrone
1Department of Emergency Medicine, East Carolina University School of Medicine, Greenville, NC 27834.
Southern Medical Journal
|February 1, 1988
Abstract:
We have presented the case of a 43-year-old woman with severe myositis due to clay ingestion and hypokalemia. EMG studies revealed a pattern consistent with myositis, and muscle biopsy showed a nonspecific diffuse myositis. The clay was shown to act as a potassium binder. With potassium replacement and discontinuance of clay ingestion, the symptoms and signs abated and laboratory values returned to normal.