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John P. Sheehan, MD
Cleveland

Arch Intern Med. 1984;144(12):2430.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The recent article by Vlay et al¹ documented accurately the mechanism of sudden cardiac death in a patient with a prolonged QT interval, with a premature ventricular beat initiating fatal ventricular tachycardia. Electrolyte imbalance was mentioned by the authors in their discussion regarding the pathogenesis of QT prolongation; however, they did not document parameters of magnesium deficiency, despite the well-known propensity for magnesium deficiency to result in QT prolongation, which indeed has been suggested by some to be a good clinical marker of intracellular magnesium deficiency.² Magnesium deficiency in this context is exceedingly important, not only for its effect on the QT interval per se, but also its known associations with refractory ventricular tachyarrhythmias³ and potentially sudden death syndromes.

The patient described by Vlay et al had several common predisposing factors to severe magnesium deficiency: namely, advanced age, congestive heart failure with loop diuretic . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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