Arrhythmia in Hypokalemia

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Abstract
To the Editor: It is widely recognized that potassium deficiency can be associated with a variety of cardiac arrhythmias. Within the last 10 months our small coronary-care unit (15 myocardial infarctions per month) has seen five hypokalemic patients with repetitive ventricular-tachycardia-fibrillation in whom electrolyte imbalance was not suspected on clinical grounds. The five had sustained acute infarctions, four, nine, 14, 15 and 22 hours before the onset of ventricular arrhythmia. None of them had taken digitalis or corticosteroids, and only one had been treated with a diuretic. Serum potassium levels were between 3.0 and 3.8 mEq per liter. All patients . . .