Channelopathies - Ion channel disorders of muscle as a paradigm for paroxysmal disorders of the nervous system

Cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) is manifested by episodic occurrence of emes is that may be precipitated by stress and fatigue. The attacks begin in chi ldhood and often taper in frequency into young and middle adult life. They frequently occur in clusters with intervening normal periods of days, weeks , months, or years. In these regards, CVS shares similarities with many oth er episodic disorders of brain, heart, and skeletal muscle. These disorders include the periodic paralyses, episodic movement disorders, cardiac dysrh ythmia syndromes, epilepsy, and migraine headache. Because of some of the s imilarities among these disorders, it has been hypothesized that common pat hophysiologic mechanisms may underlie some of these disorders. CVS may also share a similar pathophysiologic basis, and this idea may lead to novel ap proaches to investigation of this fascinating and difficult disorder.