Hepatic, neurologic, cardiac, hematologic, and metabolic abnormalities are generally accepted as frequent occurrences in people who drink alcoholic beverages (1-5) to excess. That muscle disease may occur in alcoholism is not as widely known. However, myoglobinuria with severe muscle tenderness and swelling, fever, increased levels of serum glutamic-oxalo-acetic transaminase (SGOT) and other enzymes, and, often, acute renal failure has been reported in several alcoholic patients after severe drinking bouts (6-11).
More recently, we reported studies (12) of a similar but less severe syndrome characterized by muscle tenderness and cramps, increased serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK), and a diminished ability to increase