Serum electrolytes and catecholamines after cardioversion from ventricular tachycardia and atrial fibrillation.

We have observed hypokalemia after cardioversion from spontaneous out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation and induced ventricular tachycardia. To test the hypothesis that the hormone response to the hemodynamic stress of the arrhythmia initiated the change in potassium, we compared the electrolytes and hormones in three groups of patients. We observed a decrease in serum potassium and magnesium after cardioversion from ventricular tachycardia induced by programmed stimulation, but not after normal programmed stimulation of the ventricle or after cardioversion from stable atrial fibrillation. These changes were preceded first by a rise in norepinephrine and epinephrine, then a rise in glucose, followed by a rise in insulin. The stimulus for these changes was probably the hypotension associated with ventricular tachycardia. The sequence of changes suggests that the decrease of potassium and magnesium after ventricular tachycardia was due to a shift of the electrolytes into cells, related to the insulin-mediated movement of glucose from the blood into cells.