Amiodarone: Is it Safe in Stress Cardiomyopathy?

Amiodarone is a broad-spectrum antiarrhythmic agent used in day-to-day practice to treat ventricular tachycardia (VT) and supraventricular tachycardias like atrial flutter/atrial fibrillation. ¹ It can cause QT prolongation and rarely precipitate life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias like Torsade de Pointes (TdP). ¹ Torsades is characterized by prolonged ventricular repolarization with QT intervals generally exceeding 500 milliseconds. ^{1 , 2} Risk factors for drug-induced QT prolongation are female sex, congestive heart failure, and so on. ² This case report describes a woman with stress cardiomyopathy ³ and atrial fibrillation who was treated with Amiodarone which precipitated Torsades. Therefore knowledge of side effects, monitoring for drug effects, and timely withdrawal of the offending drug is important. ²