Edrophonium (Archived)

Excerpt

Edrophonium is a reversible acetylcholinesterase inhibitor with rapid onset and short duration of action resulting in an increase of acetylcholine in the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Since the early 1930s, it has been a diagnostic tool for myasthenia gravis (MG). MG is a neuromuscular disorder characterized by muscular weakness due to antibody production that inhibits or destroys post-synaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the NMJ. Muscle weakness in MG presents as ptosis, diplopia, dysarthria, and dysphagia and can progress to fatal respiratory depression in critically ill patients. For many years, edrophonium, marketed as the Tensilon test, was FDA-approved to be utilized to diagnose MG.