A 65-year-old Japanese woman was admitted to hospital because of palpitations and faintness. She was diagnosed as having sick sinus syndrome and a permanent pacemaker was therefore implanted. Administration of bepridil (200 mg daily) was started for prevention of atrial flutter and fibrillation after PM implantation. On the twenty-fifth day of Bpd therapy, she developed recurrent syncope, ECG s...

A 67-year-old woman presented with a history of dilated cardiomyopathy with congestive heart failure since 2003, who subsequently developed lower rectal cancer (adenocarcinoma) with liver, bone, and lymph node metastasis. Abdominoperineal resection and hepatectomy were performed. The patient received two rounds of intravenous chemotherapy, including 12 and six courses of FOLFOX4 (5-fluorouracil...

RATIONALE Drug-induced prolongation of the corrected QT interval (QTc) may lead to serious and potentially life-threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmia, such as torsades de pointes (Tdp), which is worthy of clinical attention. Here, we report 1 case of Tdp after a coadministration of fluoxetine and amiodarone. PATIENT CONCERNS A 62-year-old Chinese male who placed with the implanted cardiover...

PURPOSE Postoperative delirium occurs in about 2% of patients undergoing major cardiac surgery including coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG). Haloperidol (Sabex, Boucherville, Canada) is a drug commonly used in the intensive care unit for the treatment of delirium and is usually considered safe even at high doses and is rarely implicated in the development of malignant ventricular ar...

BACKGROUND Prolongation of the corrected QT (QTc) interval is a key issue for patients who receive psychotropic medications. Such patients may have baseline clinical risk factors for QTc prolongation, and many psychotropic medications may further prolong this interval. This has great clinical relevance, as QTc prolongation is linked with dangerous arrhythmias, especially torsades de pointes (Td...

A dog model of torsades de pointes (TdP) was developed. Twenty 18-30-kg dogs had cardiopulmonary bypass instituted to maintain stable temperature, perfusion pressure and oxygenation. Quinidine, 30 mg/kg, was then administered and burst ventricular pacing was used to induce arrhythmias. The left anterior descending coronary artery was occluded for 15 minutes and repeat pacing studies were perfor...

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, or stress-induced cardiomyopathy, is characterized by reversible left ventricular apical ballooning associated with emotional or physiologic stress, mimicking acute myocardial infarction in the absence of significant coronary artery disease at angiography. Although the prognosis for patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is relatively good, it is reported to be associa...