Torsades de pointes is a potentially life threatening form of rapid, polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. Literally meaning “twisting of the points”, torsades de pointes is electrocardiographically characterized by QRS axis undulations over runs of several beats, with a specific twist of the QRS complex around the isoelectric baseline. The definition also requires that an abnormal QT-prolongati...

We report one case of cardiac arrest related to ciprofloxacin administration. One female patient (aged 70 years old) developed a marked QTc prolongation (QTc = 0.62 s) within 24 hours of ciprofloxacin administration, with documented torsades de pointes and recurrent syncope that required defibrillation. The patient was under amiodarone and sotalol therapy for atrial fibrillation, with no obviou...

Torsades de pointes is a rare but potentially lethal arrhythmia which mainly occurs in the setting of a prolonged QT interval. ECG is a reliable tool to detect such abnormalities, routinely taken from all patients over 40 who undergo surgery. We describe the case of a 35-year-old woman with torsades de points arrhythmia after hysterectomy surgery. Most likely, our patients had long QT syndro...

Electrophysiologic studies were performed in 21 patients who had torsades de pointes. This ventricular tachyarrhythmia, characterized by rapid (200-250 beats/min) and irregular paroxysms and progressively varying QRS amplitude and polarity, occurred in the absence of electrolyte disturbance, antiarrhythmic drug therapy or acute ischemia. The QTc interval was prolonged in seven of 21 patients. E...

Torsades de pointes is a life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia. Occurrence of this arrhythmia as a result of hypoglycemia has not been reported in the literature. We describe an interesting case of an insulin-dependent diabetic patient presenting with torsades de pointes resulting from hypoglycemia. A 62-year-old male was admitted to the hospital following an episode of severe insulin-induced hyp...

1. Nombela-Franco L, Ruiz-Antoran B, Toquero-Ramos J, SilvaMelchor L. Torsades de pointes relacionadas con el uso de rupatadina. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2008;61:328-9. 2. Buenas prácticas de farmacovigilancia del Sistema Español de Farmacovigilanica de Medicamentos de Uso Humano. Disponible en: http://www.agemed.es/profHumana/ farmacovigilancia/docs/BPFV-SEFV-oct08.pdf 3. Roden DM. Long-QT syndrome. N...

torsades de pointes is a rare but potentially lethal arrhythmia which mainly occurs in the setting of a prolonged qt interval. ecg is a reliable tool to detect such abnormalities, routinely taken from all patients over 40 who undergo surgery. we describe the case of a 35-year-old woman with torsades de points arrhythmia after hysterectomy surgery. most likely, our patients had long qt syndrome ...

torsades de pointes is a rare but potentially lethal arrhythmia which mainly occurs in the setting of a prolonged qt interval. ecg is a reliable tool to detect such abnormalities, routinely taken from all patients over 40 who undergo surgery. we describe the case of a 35-year-old woman with torsades de points arrhythmia after hysterectomy surgery. most likely, our patients had long qt syndrome ...

results the mean qtc at baseline (pre-methadone) was 426 ± 34 msec and after being on methadone for an average of 8.72 ± 4.50 years was significantly higher at 450 ± 35 msec. no significant relationships were found between qtc prolongation and risk factors except for calcium. the methadone dosage was significantly higher in veterans with a qtc change above the mean change of ≥ 24 msec (88.48 ± ...

Here, we report the case of an HIV infected patient that was treated for pneumonia with a macrolid antibiotic. The patient experienced a prolongation of the already pathologic QTc interval resulting in repeated torsades de pointes necessitating CPR and implantation of an AICD. This case exemplifies that torsades de pointes due to acquired long QT syndrome is a serious and potentially fatal comp...