Association between hypophosphatemia and cardiac arrhythmias in the early stage of sepsis: Could phosphorus replacement treatment reduce the incidence of arrhythmias?

Andrei Schwartz, Evgeni Brotfain, Leonid Koyfman, Ruslan Kutz, Shaun E. Gruenbaum, Moti Klein, Alexander Zlotnik

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    30 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    It is well known that new-onset arrhythmias are common in septic patients. It is thought that hypophosphatemia in the early stages of sepsis may contribute to the development of new arrhythmias. In this study, we hypothesized that intravenous (IV) phosphorus replacement may reduce the incidence of arrhythmias in critically ill patients. 34 adult septic patients with hypophosphatemia admitted to the general intensive care unit were treated with IV phosphorus replacement per ICU protocol, and the incidence of new arrhythmias were compared with 16 patients from previously published data. IV phosphorus replacement was associated with a significantly reduced incidence of arrhythmias (38% vs. 63%, p=0.04). There were no differences in observed mortality between subgroups, which may be due to the small sample size. This study demonstrated that IV phosphorus replacement might be effective in reducing the incidence of new arrhythmias in septic patients.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)19-25
    Number of pages7
    JournalElectrolyte and Blood Pressure
    Volume12
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 1 Jan 2014

    Keywords

    • Cardiac arrhythmias
    • Critical care
    • Hypophosphatemia
    • Phosphorus replacement

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Internal Medicine
    • Physiology
    • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

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