Why the study?
Hypokalemia can cause life-threatening arrhythmias, requiring clinicians to recognize varied ECG manifestations of potassium disorders for timely diagnosis and management.
Severe hypokalemia can present with various life-threatening arrhythmias, and timely potassium supplementation is critical for resolution.
May support potassium checks in unexplained arrhythmias lacking classic ECG signs; leaves open how often this occult pattern occurs.
Electrolyte imbalances, particularly potassium disorders, are common in clinical practice. Potassium homeostasis plays a key role in regulating cell membrane excitability. Hypokalemia usually presents with cardiovascular and neuromuscular abnormalities. Hypokalemia can lead to clinically significant life-threatening arrhythmia. Typical electrocardiographic (ECG) features of hypokalemia include widespread ST depression, T wave inversion, and prominent U waves. However, hypokalemia may present with different types of arrhythmia, such as premature ventricular contractions, ventricular fibrillation, atrial fibrillation, and torsade de pointes. Thus, clinicians should be familiar with ECG manifestations of potassium disorders that may warrant timely diagnosis and effective management. Herein, we report three patients with arrhythmia who were found to have typical ECG characteristics of hypokalemia after resolution of arrhythmia and later proved to have low serum potassium levels.
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Kyaw et al. (2022) studied this question.