Ultrastructural pathology in emetine-induced myopathy

Progressive myopathy developed in two women who consumed ipecac syrup containing emetine hydrochloride to induce vomiting as part of their anorexia nervosa. Muscle biopsy specimens were characterized by severe disruption of the sarcomeres. The ultrastructural spectrum extended from "Z-band streaming" to the formation of cytoplasmic bodies and also comprised abnormalities of the sarcotubular system, thus suggesting that muscle weakness may be related to both sarcomeric and sarcotubular lesions in this self-inflicted myopathy. It is tempting to suggest that muscle weakness may be correlated with or based on the pathology in sarcomeres and the sarcotubular system. As the myopathy is clinically reversible upon discontinuation of ipecac consumption the morphological findings should also be potentially reversible. Experimentally induced emetine myopathy may, thus, serve as a useful model to study morphological dynamics of sarcomeric lesions, which may be observed separately or simultaneously in a variety of spontaneously occurring human neuromuscular disorders.