Abstract
Lehmann and Ryan1 have noted the familial incidence of the low levels of serum pseudocholinesterase seen in several patients who were examined because of prolonged apnœa following the administration of suxamethonium. Kalow2 confirmed the hereditary nature of the hypersensibility to suxamethonium and studied the kinetics of the pseudocholinesterase of normal and drug sensitive individuals, discovering that they differed in their activity towards several substrates and their resistance to different inhibitors. The latter property was utilized to devise a technique3 called dibucaine number (DN) which clearly differentiated4 three types of persons that corresponded presumably to: (a) normal homozygotes characterized by having DN above 72; (b) abnormal homozygotes with DN below 35; (c) heterozygotes with DN between 45 and 68. Family studies suggested that one pair of allelic genes now called E1u E1a (Motulsky5) controlled the type of pseudocholinesterase present.
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References
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LISKER, R., DEL MORAL, C. & LORÍA, A. Frequency of the Atypical Pseudocholinesterase in Four Indian (Mexican) Tribes. Nature 202, 815 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/202815a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/202815a0
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