Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about Lambert Eaton Myasenic Syndrome. And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic, you can follow along at zero definals.com slash Lambert Eaton or in the neurology section of the zero definals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it. Lambertetan, myasinic syndrome, or just Lambertetan syndrome,

has similar features to myasenia gravis. So it causes progressive muscle weakness with increased

use and it's the result of damage to the

neuromuscular junction. The symptoms tend to be more insidious or slowly progressing and less pronounced

than in myasenia gravis. So they're more subtle symptoms than myasenegravis.

Lambertitin syndrome typically occurs in patients with small cell lung cancer.

So always think about small cell lung cancer and a patient presenting with these symptoms.

It's a result of antibodies produced by the immune system against the voltage gated calcium

channels in the small cell lung cancer cells,

and these antibodies also target and damage voltage-gated calcium channels

in the presynaptic terminals of the neuromuscular junction,

which is where the motor nerves communicate with the muscle cells.

So basically, to simplify what's going on, the motor nerves communicate with the muscle cells. So basically to simplify what's going on,

the motor nerves which control the muscles contracting, the motor nerves go into the muscles,

and there's a neuromuscular junction where those nerves communicate with the muscles. And the antibodies in Lambertitin syndrome damage the pre-synaptic terminals

of those neuromuscular junctions, meaning that they don't work as well. So these voltage-gated

calcium channels on the pre-synaptic terminals are responsible for assisting in the release of

acetylcholine into the synapse of the neuromuscular junction.

This acetylcholine then binds to the acetylcholine receptors and stimulates the muscles to contract.

So when these channels are destroyed, there's less acetylcholine in the neuromuscular junction

that's been released into the synapse and so you get less

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