In reply
We thank Dr Pandey for his comments. We agree that hypokalemia can contribute to acute presentations of neuromuscular respiratory failure. All of the patients in our series had measurements of serum potassium levels. None of them had severe hypokalemia that was considered responsible for the neuromuscular weakness.
Correspondence: Dr Rabinstein, Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St SW, May W8B, Rochester, MN 55905 (rabinstein.alejandro@mayo.edu).