School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-8-2024
Abstract
Methadone, a well-known drug used for pain control and as a treatment for opioid addiction, can cause arrhythmias, including torsades de pointes (TdP), which may progress to ventricular fibrillation and sudden death. We present a case of a middle-aged woman with a long history of methadone use who presented to the emergency department after experiencing cardiac arrest at home. During her hospitalization, she experienced multiple episodes of TdP that improved with isoproterenol and potassium correction. The initial diagnosis was methadone-induced prolonged QT. However, even with discontinuation of methadone, her QTc remained prolonged. Congenital long QT syndrome was suspected, and genetic testing was instructed to test in the outpatient setting. She was discharged on nadolol and a LifeVest.
Recommended Citation
Lopez, O. J., Othon, D., Ng-Wong, Y. K., & Sleiman, J. (2024). The Perfect Storm: Abnormal Baseline QT With Chronic Methadone Use and Serious Hypokalemia. Journal of investigative medicine high impact case reports, 12, 23247096241286373. https://doi.org/10.1177/23247096241286373
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Journal of investigative medicine high impact case reports
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/23247096241286373
Academic Level
resident
Mentor/PI Department
Internal Medicine
Comments
© 2024 American Federation for Medical Research. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).