QUOTE
Abstract
A 29-year-old comatose patient was brought to Emergency Department with severe alcohol intoxication. No risk factors or cardiac abnormalities were documented. The analysis was negative for other drugs. Plasma electrolyte and cardiac enzymes were normal. The electrocardiogram showed Mobitz type-I atrioventricular block that developed to a rapid junctional rhythm. The patient was stabilized and recovered completely, electrocardiogram then showed sinus rhythm. He admitted important absinthe consumption.
Although tachyarrhythmias are frequently developed in acute alcohol intoxication, bradyarrhythmias are exceptional in this context. We present a Wenckebach-type atrioventricular-block in severe alcohol intoxication with absinthe that developed to a rapid junctional rhythm, never described before.
QUOTE
In the past, absinthe enjoyed enormous popularity because of its stimulating and aphrodisiacal reputation. Nowadays, the problem is that this old drug, long time forgotten of our minds, is again enjoying a new period of popularity among young people; and we should know the serious consequences that it can have in our patients, including those that affect the electrophysiologic properties of the heart.
"Electrocardiographic findings after acute absinthe intoxication" by Juan Benezet-Mazuecos, Adolfo de la Fuente of Cardiology Department, Fundacion Jimenez Dıaz, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
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