Cardiac arrest in a young woman with the long QT syndrome and concomitant astemizole ingestion.
Department of Cardiology, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London.
Ventricular fibrillation developed in a 19 year old woman taking the antihistamine astemizole. She was successfully resuscitated. QTc prolongation was found and persisted despite withdrawal of the drug. Aggravation of congenital long QTc syndrome by astemizole is postulated. More caution should be exercised with the use of this drug.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Morissette, P., Hreiche, R., Mallet, L., Vo, D., Knaus, E. E., Turgeon, J.
(2007). Olanzapine prolongs cardiac repolarization by blocking the rapid component of the delayed rectifier potassium current. J Psychopharmacol
21: 735-741
[Abstract] -
Khalifa, M., Drolet, B., Daleau, P., Lefez, C., Gilbert, M., Plante, S., O'Hara, G. E., Gleeton, O., Hamelin, B. A., Turgeon, J.
(1999). Block of Potassium Currents in Guinea Pig Ventricular Myocytes and Lengthening of Cardiac Repolarization in Man by the Histamine H1 Receptor Antagonist Diphenhydramine. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther.
288: 858-865
[Abstract] [Full Text]
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
