Schwellnus Martin P
UCT/MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Sports Med. 2007;37(4-5):364-7. doi: 10.2165/00007256-200737040-00023.
Skeletal muscle cramps are commonly encountered in marathon runners by medical staff. However, the aetiology, and therefore management, of this condition is not well understood. Exercise-associated muscle cramping (EAMC) is defined as an involuntary, painful contraction of skeletal muscle during or immediately after exercise. In early anecdotal reports, cramps were associated with profuse sweating, together with changes in serum electrolyte concentrations. No mechanism explains how such imbalances in serum electrolytes result in localised muscle cramping. The 'muscle fatigue' hypothesis suggests that EAMC is the result of an abnormality of neuromuscular control at the spinal level in response to fatiguing exercise and is based on evidence from epidemiological studies, animal experimental data on spinal reflex activity during fatigue and electromyogram data recorded during bouts of acute cramping after fatiguing exercise. The development of premature muscle fatigue appears to explain the onset of EAMC.
医务人员在马拉松运动员中经常遇到骨骼肌痉挛。然而，这种情况的病因以及相应的处理方法尚未得到很好的理解。运动相关性肌肉痉挛（EAMC）被定义为运动期间或运动后立即发生的骨骼肌非自愿性疼痛收缩。在早期的轶事报道中，痉挛与大量出汗以及血清电解质浓度的变化有关。没有机制可以解释血清电解质的这种失衡如何导致局部肌肉痉挛。“肌肉疲劳”假说表明，EAMC是脊髓水平神经肌肉控制异常对疲劳运动作出反应的结果，其依据是流行病学研究、疲劳期间脊髓反射活动的动物实验数据以及疲劳运动后急性痉挛发作期间记录的肌电图数据。过早出现的肌肉疲劳似乎可以解释EAMC的发作。
