Rosenfeld B A, Bosnjak Z J, Shapiro R M, Dorman T, Ligier B, Breslow M J
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD.
Crit Care Med. 1992 Mar;20(3):327-31. doi: 10.1097/00003246-199203000-00006.
To study the effect of serum from patients with fungemia and control patients on sinoatrial node function.
Prospective, observational study.
Surgical ICU in a university hospital.
Fourteen patients with fungemia and 14 control patients.
Serum samples from all patients were assayed in an in vitro sinus node preparation. Serum samples from 11 (78%) of the 14 fungemic patients caused a decrease in sinus node activity, while serum samples from only one (7%) of 14 control patients caused slowing of the sinus node.
Serum from many patients with fungemia causes slowing of an in vitro sinus node preparation. This in vitro finding may explain bradyarrhythmias seen clinically in the setting of fungemia.
