Intravenous atropine used to treat sinus bradycardia in the setting of acute myocardial infarction can precipitate life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias, including ventricular fibrillation.
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Atropine for bradycardia in AMI may precipitate VF; single case leaves open causality and incidence.
A patient with acute myocardial infarction and sinus bradycardia has been treated with 0.5 mg atropine intravenously. Shortly after the injection he showed a sinus tachycardia, then developed ventricular ectopic beats, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, which was treated successfully with electrical countershock.
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P. K. M. Lunde (1976) studied this question.
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