Paroxysmal Cold Haemoglobin after Mumps

Communications MEDICALSOURNAL is illustrated in the accompanying electrocardiograms, which show that the effect of ascorbic acid began within 15 minutes and was complete within two hours.Of the 12 patients, three were given 1 g. of ascorbic acid, four 2 g., and five 3 g.In no cases were we able to demonstrate a significant alteration of the S-T or T segments of the E.C.G.s at any time up to three hours after the injections.Three of our patients were in atrial fibrillation and there was no alteration in ventricular rate related to the injection of ascorbic acid.One of the patients developed complete A-V dissociation during digitalis treatment, and this also was not influenced by an intravenous injection of 3 g. of ascorbic acid. DISCUSSIONSchultheiss and Tarai claimed that the use of ascorbic acid enabled them to continue digitalization despite the appearance of early side-effects.They also reported for the first time the abolishment of E.C.G. changes related to digitalis in man and were able to decrease the T-wave inversion in 4 out of 30 cases.We can confirm that under some circumstances T-wave inver- sion caused by digoxin can be reversed by the administration of ascorbic acid.We have been unable to show any effect on the cardiograms of patients with heart disease who were being treated with digoxin, and, in particular, there was no effect on any manifestation of digitalis toxicity.SUMMARY Intravenous injections of 1 g. of ascorbic acid restored up- right T-waves in the cardiograms of two healthy volunteers treated with large doses of digoxin.No comparable effect could be demonstrated in patients with abnormal electrocardiograms, and we are unable to confirm a previous report that ascorbic acid minimizes the side-effects of digitalis.The ascorbic acid used in this investigation was kindly supplied by Roche Products Limited.