Elsevier

American Heart Journal

Volume 81, Issue 2, February 1971, Pages 166-174
American Heart Journal

Clinical communication
T-wave abnormalities during hyperventilation and isoproterenol infusion

https://doi.org/10.1016/0002-8703(71)90127-XGet rights and content

Abstract

We studied the effects of three types of hyperventilation (HV) on the ECG, arterial blood gases, and plasma electrolyte concentration in twelve patients without heart disease in whom HV produced T-wave abnormalities, and in eleven healthy volunteers. The T-wave abnormalities produced by HV could not be attributed to alkalosis, changes in plasma Na, K, Ca, or Mg concentrations, or changes in heart position. In ten of eleven subjects in whom the T wave became inverted during HV, isoproterenol infusion at a rate of 3 to 6 μg per minute also produced T-wave inversion. In all subjects the T-wave inversion during HV and isoproterenol infusion was transient, occurred at the onset of tachycardia, and was associated with prolongation of the Q-Tc interval, attributed to the hysteresis of the Q-T interval. We have postulated that the transient T-wave abnormalities during HV and isoproterenol infusion may be due to asynchronous shortening of repolarization.

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    Supported by National Institutes of Health Research Grant HE 07359 and by National Institutes of Health Training Grant HE 05598.

    United States Public Health Service Research Fellow (HE 35651).

    ∗∗

    Research Associate.

    ∗∗∗

    Professor of Medicine, Director of Cardiovascular Division.

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