Article title: Atrioventricular Nodal Reentrant Tachycardia Triggered by Marijuana Use: A case report and review of the literature
Summary:
The effect of cannabis on the heart is not yet well-understood. This report highlights a case of one 40-year-old patient who had, an hour after smoking cannabis, a specific type of cardiac rhythm abnormality (arrhythmia) called atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT). There is a physical component of this abnormality, an errant track where aberrant rhythms re-enter the heart and can cause rapid heartbeats (tachycardia.) In the discussion, the authors suggest that cannabis use, at higher doses, may stimulate the parasympathetic system, which happens to be involved in electrical current tracks in our heart. The authors further hypothesize that in susceptible people, as in this case, cannabis may affect this electrical pathway in the heart, and may disrupt a stable rhythm.
Dr Caplan and the #MDTake:
Abnormal heart rhythm disorders can be life-concerning conditions, however, there have only been 17 or so reported cases (see Table 1) of life-threatening cases in the medical literature. As it is exceedingly rare, it can be difficult to determine if cannabis is implicated or not.
Clinical Impressions:
Including rare, serious heart conditions, relatively benign circumstances, and conditions related to structural heart disease, arrhythmias are a relatively uncommon condition. Nevertheless, CED Clinic has seen many patients who have atrial fibrillation, a smaller but significant number of patients who have stable low or elevated heart rates, and a rare few with irregularly irregular abnormalities. Some patients have embraced cannabis while anticoagulated (helpful to reduce the risks of potentially dangerous clots), and some who are engaging with cannabis have been treated surgically. The approach to cannabis that most seem to prefer is a slow, gradually increasing dosage routine, where one can become accustomed to low doses, prior to advancing to something which may be more therapeutic, while minimizing the potential cardiac impact. Fortunately, to date, we have observed no grave repercussions that seemed caused, correlated or attributable to cannabis.
ECG showing AVNRT at the time of presentation.
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This paper is also stored here: http://bit.ly/2MPc7Rl inside the CED Foundation Archive
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