Acute alcohol intoxication is an uncommon but reversible cause of T-wave oversensing and inappropriate ICD shocks that should be considered before aggressive interventions.
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Acute alcohol intoxication may trigger inappropriate ICD shocks; this case leaves open prevalence and prevention strategies.
T-wave oversensing can be a serious problem that often results in inappropriate device therapy. We report here a patient with binge alcohol use who received multiple, inappropriate ICD shocks due to T-wave oversensing from repolarization changes induced by acute alcohol intoxication and no other relevant metabolic derangements. Following recovery from his alcohol intoxication a few days later, the T-wave amplitude decreased so the device no longer inappropriately sensed or delivered therapies. This case represents an uncommon, but reversible, cause of T-wave oversensing that should be considered before more aggressive measures are taken to correct the abnormality.
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Rasania et al. (2012) studied this question.
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