• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.50-52
• /
• 2001

Licorice is widely used as a Chinese(herbal) medicine. The glycyrrhizin, a main ingredient of the natural licorice, has a potent mineralocorticoid effect which may cause severe hypokalemia and muscle paralysis. We present a 60-year-old woman, who had been ingesting one or two spoonful of licorice powder daily for about one year, developed acute flaccid quadriparesis with high levels of serum muscle enzymes and the typical features of mineralocorticoid excess such as severe hypokalemia and metabolic alkalosis. Both plasma renin activity and serum aldosterone level were below the normal values. This case indicates that licorice-induced hypokalemic myopathy should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a patient with acute quadriparesis and hypokalemia.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.133-137
• /
• 1987

Myopathy in primary aldosteronism is relatively rare disease in Korea. A 42-year-lod woman with hypokalemic periodic paralysis, proximal muscle weakness and hypertension was found to have myopathy associated with adenoma in the right adrenal gland. She showed marked elevation of muscle enzymes and myopathic pattern in EMG.