Six cases of digitalis intoxication pre senting with cardiac arrhythmias are described. Multiple cardiac arrhyth mias consisting of multifocal, or unifo cal, multiform ventricular ectopic beats, bidirectional tachycardia, com plete heart block, accelerated junc tional rhythm with exit block, nonpa roxysmal junctional tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, atrial tachycardia with block, and multifocal tachycardia were observed. The presence of such multi ple arrhythmias occurring simultane ously should always suggest the high possibility of digitalis intoxication.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ewy, G., Marcus, F.I., Fillmore, S., Matthew, N.: Digitalis intoxication—diagnosis, management and prevention. in Cardiovascular Clinics. Philadelphia, FA Davis Co, 153-171.
2.
Beller, G.A. , Smith, T.W., Abelmann, W.H., et al.: Digitalis intoxication: a prospective study with serum level correlations. N. Engl. J. Med., 284: 989, 1971.
3.
Chung, E.K.: Digitalis-induced cardiac arrhythmias: a report of 180 cases. Jap. Heart J., 10: 409, 1969.
4.
Fisch, C., Knoebel, S.B.: Recognition and therapy of digitalis toxicity. Prog. Cardiovasc. Dis., 12: 383, 1970.
5.
Von Capeller, D., Copeland, G.D., Stern, T.N.: Digitalis intoxication: clinical report of 148 cases. Ann. Intern. Med., 50: 869, 1959.
6.
Irons, G.V., Jr, Orgain, E.S.: Digitalis-induced arrhythmias and their management. Prog. Cardiovasc. Dis., 8: 539, 1966.
7.
Childers, R. : Classification of dysrrhythmias. Med. Clin North Am., 60: 3, 1976.
