CASE A 41year-old male presented with torsades de pointes. The patient was taking over 100mg of loperamide per day to self-medicate for chronic pain. Coronary angiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging,… Click to show full abstract
CASE A 41year-old male presented with torsades de pointes. The patient was taking over 100mg of loperamide per day to self-medicate for chronic pain. Coronary angiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, and genetic testing were negative for pre-disposing ischemia, cardiomyopathy, or genetic variant respectively. CONCLUSIONS Patients without predisposing genetic or cardiac abnormalities are at risk of life-threatening QTc prolongation and torsades with use of high-dose loperamide. The authors suggest consideration of regulating the quantity of loperamide that can be purchased at a single time similar to the regulations in place for other over-the-counter medications with high potential for misuse.
               
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