Question

You give an effective dose of atropine to a person who was poisoned with an AChE inhibitor. What structure will continue to be overactivated by the excess ACh after the atropine is given?

a. Airway smooth muscle
b. S-A node of the heart
c. Salivary and lacrimal glands
d. Skeletal muscle
e. Vascular smooth muscle

Answer 1

After administering atropine to counteract AChE inhibitor poisoning, skeletal muscle will continue to be overactivated due to atropine's ineffectiveness at nicotinic receptors at the neuromuscular junction.

Step-by-step explanation:

If an effective dose of atropine, an anticholinergic drug, is administered to a person who was poisoned with an acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitor, it will block the excess acetylcholine (ACh) at muscarinic receptors. However, since atropine does not affect nicotinic receptors, the structure that will continue to be overactivated by the excess ACh after atropine administration is d. Skeletal muscle. This is because the ACh receptors at the neuromuscular junction of skeletal muscles are of the nicotinic type, which are not targeted by atropine.