Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D E Heiselman.
A 72-year-old woman attempted suicide with thioridazine 3000 mg and 60 tablets of acetaminophen 325 mg plus codeine 30 mg. She was semicomatose and had persistent third-degree atrioventricular block, progressive hypotension, and an episode of torsade de pointes. Heart block, arrhythmias, and hypotension resolved within 48 hours, and the patient recovered without adverse sequelae.
The administration of intermittent intravenous infusions of cimetidine is infrequently associated with the development of bradyarrhythmias. A 40-year-old man with leukemia and no history of cardiac disease developed recurrent, brief episodes of apparent sinus arrest while receiving continuous-infusion cimetidine 50 mg/hour. The arrhythmias were temporally related to cimetidine administration, disappeared after dechallenge, and did not recur during ranitidine treatment. This is the first reported case of sinus arrest associated with continuous-infusion cimetidine.