Ventricular tachycardia following ingestion of a commonly used antihistamine

Sager, Philip T; Veltri, Enrico P

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To the Editor: Kuchar et al1 describe a patient who received an implantable defibrillator discharge after a single ingestion of loratadine. We are concerned that their conclusion — that this patient "probably" had drug-induced torsade de pointes — is incorrect.

Correspondence:

1. Kuchar DL, Walker BD, Thorburn CW. Ventricular tachycardia following ingestion of a commonly used antihistamine. Med J Aust 2002; 176: 429-430.
2. Roelke M, Garan H, McGovern BA, Ruskin JN. Analysis of the initiation of spontaneous monomorphic ventricular tachycardia by stored intracardiac electrograms. J Am Coll Cardiol 1994; 23: 117-122.
3. Mazur A, Anderson ME, Bonney S, Roden DM. Pause-dependent polymorphic ventricular tachycardia during long term treatment with dofetilide; a placebo controlled, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator-based evaluation. J Am Coll Cardiol 2001; 37: 1100-1105.

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