We report serial electrophysiologic observations in a patient with acute bulbar and respiratory paralysis following ingestion of saxitoxin-contaminated clams. Prolonged distal motor and sensory latencies, slowed conduction velocities, and moderately diminished amplitudes were present at the outset. All values returned to normal over 5 days. These findings, the result of incomplete sodium channel blockade, distinguish paralytic shellfish poisoning from most other acute paralytic illnesses.
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