[The influence of several membrane stabilizing drugs on the induced hereditary myotonia--a methodic way to test the effectiveness of drugs on myotonia (author's transl)].

The therapeutic effectiveness of several membrane stabilizing drugs was investigated on experimentally induced myotonia by 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetate (2,4-D) and in 20 patients with myotonia congenita. Procainamide and quinine showed a better antimyotonic effect in-vitro- as well as in-vivo-experiments on the cold blood muscle and the rat than Sparteine sulfate and Tachmaline (Ajmalin). The two last-mentioned drugs had nearly the same effect. Because of these experimental results only procainamide and sparteine sulfate were clinically used. Quinine was not used because of the well known side-effects. Mention is made of the fact, that the therapeutic effect depends on the dose or the concentration. The results support not only the theoretic considerations on the pathogenesis of myotonia but also recommend to carry out further pharmacological investigations with this method.