Ventricular tachycardia associated with hyperkalemia. Occurrence in an infant aged 13 days with adrenogenital syndrome.

Abstract

IN THISJournalin 1966 Anthony et al,1reviewing the English literature of the last 35 years, found only 25 confirmed examples of ventricular tachycardia in children under the age of 15 years, of which only three were in infants under the age of 1 year. They reported a further example in a baby aged 3 months. We have been unable to find in the English literature any well documented evidence of ventricular tachycardia occurring in the newborn period. This contribution describes a newborn infant with salt-losing adrenogenital syndrome who developed ventricular tachycardia at the time of severe hyperkalemia. Report of a Case A full term male infant, birth weight 3,600 gm (8 lb), was born at home after a normal pregnancy and delivery. The mother's previous obstetric history was uneventful: there were two normal siblings aged 2 and 4 years. Progress of the infant was normal until the