Magnesium is the second most common intracellular cation and serves as an important metabolic cofactor to over 300 enzymatic reactions throughout the human body. Among its various roles, magnesium modulates calcium entry and release from sarcoplasmic reticulum and regulates ATP pumps in myocytes and neurons, thereby regulating cardiac and neuronal excitability. Therefore, deficiency of this ess...

Serial serum magnesium estimations, beginning before operation, were performed on 200 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting. The results indicate that serum magnesium concentration is of no value in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction in the postoperative patient or in predicting which patients are susceptible to postoperative dysrhythmias. There was no statistically signifi...

Using succinylcholine and inhalation agents for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy is extremely risky. Those risks include heart failure, cardiac dysrhythmias, rhabdomyolysis and malignant hyperthermia. Even in emergent situations, such as intraoperative bronchospasm, succinylcholine and inhalational agents are often considered contraindicated. Nevertheless, if intraoperative bronchospas...

Carbon monoxide is an insidious poison that accounts for thousands of deaths each year in North America. Clinical effects maybe diverse and include headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting,syn-cope, seizures, coma, dysrhythmias, and cardiac ischemia. Children, pregnant women, and patients who have underlying cardiovascular disease are particularly at risk for adverse out-comes. Treatment consists ...

dysrhythmia must be very exact. With current methods, this limits application of the technique to cases where a stable unifocal ventricular tachycardia with a rate less than 200 beats/min is present in the operating room. It appears likely however that in the near future with the use of multiple simultaneously recorded electrodes and on-line computer analysis, more complex ventricular dysrhythm...

Thiamine or Vitamin B1 is an essential cofactor for many metabolic processes in numerous tissues. Thiamine-Responsive Megaloblastic Anemia Syndrome is a genetic disorder affecting thiamine transportation with consequent bone marrow, pancreatic, neurological, and cardiac functional and developmental anomalies. There are limited reports of the cardiac manifestations of this syndrome. Here, we pre...

Hyperkalemia is a commonly encountered electrolyte abnormality that can significantly alter normal cardiac conduction. Potentially lethal dysrhythmias associated with hyperkalemia include complete heart block and Mobitz Type II second-degree AV block. We report a case of trifascicular block, due to hyperkalemia. The patient's symptoms and electrocardiogram (ECG) evidence of trifascicular block ...

Most patients who have taken a large dose of a beta-blocker will demonstrate bradycardia and hypotension. With very large doses there will be coma, convulsions and profound hypotension. A variety of cardiac dysrhythmias and ECG abnormalities are described. The more serious of these can result in cardiorespiratory arrest.2,3 These include: • heart block • intraventricular conduction defects • ST...