Cardiac arrhythmia during chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis.
Repeated bouts of ventricular tachycardia were triggered by the inflow of dialysate during acute peritoneal dialysis performed in a 79-year-old woman. Subsequent continuous Holter monitoring of 21 patients, many elderly and with cardiac disease, undergoing chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) revealed atrial and/or ventricular premature beats in 19 out of them. However, there were no differences in the type and frequency of the extrasystoles between the recordings performed on a day of dialysis or on a day on which dialysis was deliberately withheld. No new arrhythmias were seen in the 2 patients who were previously free of arrhythmias, in whom CAPD was undertaken. It seems that CAPD does not provoke or aggravate arrhythmias, even in elderly or cardiac patients.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D010531:Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory / Q000009:adverse effects*