title: An unusual presentation of primary renal hypokalemia-hypomagnesemia (Gitelman's syndrome).
abstract: Gitelman's syndrome, or congenital hypokalemic hypomagnesemic hypocalciuria with metabolic alkalosis, is widely described as a benign or milder variant of Bartter's syndrome and most commonly presents with transient periods of weakness and fatigue, presyncope, vertigo, ataxia, and blurred vision, though aborted sudden cardiac death has also been rarely reported. Despite this there are limited data in the literature regarding the formal cardiac evaluation of patients with Gitelman's syndrome. We present the case of a gentleman with Gitelman's syndrome who initially presented to his primary physician with symptoms suggestive of an upper respiratory tract infection and subsequently survived a ventricular fibrillation (VF) cardiac arrest in the community. We review the literature regarding possible life-threatening cardiac complications in these patients.
authors.affiliation: Sheffield Kidney Institute, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK. drtarunbansal@yahoo.co.uk
authors.forename: Tarun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bansal
authors.forename: Sumith
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abeygunasekara
authors.forename: Vivienne
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ezzat
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D053579:Gitelman Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000150:complications