Affiliation:
1. Department of Cardiology, Yashoda Hospital, Secunderabad, Telangana, India
Abstract
Amiodarone is a broad-spectrum antiarrhythmic agent used in day-to-day practice to treat ventricular tachycardia (VT) and supraventricular tachycardias like atrial flutter/atrial fibrillation. 1 It can cause QT prolongation and rarely precipitate life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias like Torsade de Pointes (TdP). 1 Torsades is characterized by prolonged ventricular repolarization with QT intervals generally exceeding 500 milliseconds. 1 , 2 Risk factors for drug-induced QT prolongation are female sex, congestive heart failure, and so on. 2 This case report describes a woman with stress cardiomyopathy 3 and atrial fibrillation who was treated with Amiodarone which precipitated Torsades. Therefore knowledge of side effects, monitoring for drug effects, and timely withdrawal of the offending drug is important. 2