[Drug-induced QT interval prolongation. Evaluating the prevalence of potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmias in a specific cohort of patients].

Abstract

Some drugs prolong the QT interval, which can be fatal in the presence of other risk factors. In the 3040 forensic autopsy cases that underwent toxicological analysis over the past five years, in which no certain cause of death could be identified, at least one drug with QT interval prolonging potential was detected in 188 individuals (6%). Risk factors for cardiac events, incl. a history of drug and/or alcohol abuse (45%), pathological cardiovascular changes (66%), and more than one QT-prolonging drug (64%) pointed toward fatal arrhythmic events resulting from the drug, of which antipsychotics were the most prevalent in our cohort.