Hypocalcemia and Intractable Ventricular Fibrillation

Excerpt

It is well recognized that hypocalcemia causes prolongation of the Q-Tc interval and variable T wave changes on the electrocardiogram. Only a few authors have reported cardiac arrhythmias as a clinical manifestation of hypocalcemia, however.

Castellanos and associates (1) reported 2:1 atrioventricular block in a 6-year-old child with hypocalcemia. Griffin (2) reported heart block in two infants where normal sinus rhythm was restored after intravenous calcium therapy. Jacobson and Schrire (3) commented on a young Bantu girl with a serum calcium of 4.6 mg/dl who experienced an attack of spontaneous ventricular fibrillation that was restored to normal sinus rhythm by