RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Potassium loading as adjunct treatment of repetitive ventricular arrhythmias
JF Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine
JO Cleve Clin J Med
FD Cleveland Clinic
SP 223
OP 231
VO 57
IS 3
A1 Maloney, James D.
A1 Detrano, Robert
A1 Jaeger, Fredrick J.
A1 Leatherman, Judy
A1 Morant, Victor A.
A1 Castle, Lon W.
YR 1990
UL http://www.ccjm.org/content/57/3/223.abstract
AB To evaluate potassium supplementation as adjunct therapy for ventricular arrhythmias, consecutive normokalemic patients undergoing in-hospital antiarrhythmic therapy for ventricular tachycardia were randomly assigned to one of four groups: intravenous potassium chloride (Group I, 44 patients) v intravenous saline (Group II, 48 patients); and oral potassium chloride capsules (Group III, 50 patients) v no additional treatment (Group IV, 47 patients). All groups underwent serial serum potassium determinations and 24-hour electrocardiographic monitoring. Analysis revealed no significant differences in ventricular ectopic activity among groups, and there was no significant association between serum potassium level and incidence of ventricular arrhythmias. We conclude that normokalemic patients undergoing anti-arrhythmic therapy for ventricular tachycardia benefit little from concomitant short-term potassium supplementation.