REVIEW ARTICLE


Electrocardiogram Changes with Acute Alcohol Intoxication: A Systematic Review



Hitesh Raheja1, *, Vinod Namana2, Kirti Chopra3, Ankur Sinha2, Sushilkumar Satish Gupta2, Stephan Kamholz2, Norbert Moskovits2, Jacob Shani2, Gerald Hollander2
1 Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA
2 Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, USA
3 Indiana University School of Dentistry, Indianapolis, USA


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Creative Commons License
© 2018 Raheja et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Clinical associate, Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio-44195, United States of America; Tel: 917-514-4928; E-mail: hiteshraheja88@gmail.com


Abstract

Background:

Acute alcohol intoxication has been associated with cardiac arrhythmias but the electrocardiogram (ECG) changes associated with acute alcohol intoxication are not well defined in the literature.

Objective:

Highlight the best evidence regarding the ECG changes associated with acute alcohol intoxication in otherwise healthy patients and the pathophysiology of the changes.

Methods:

A literature search was carried out; 4 studies relating to ECG changes with acute alcohol intoxication were included in this review.

Results:

Of the total 141 patients included in the review, 90 (63.8%) patients had P-wave prolongation, 80 (56%) patients had QTc prolongation, 19 (13.5%) patients developed T-wave abnormalities, 10 (7%) patients had QRS complex prolongation, 3 (2.12%) patients developed ST-segment depressions.

Conclusion:

The most common ECG changes associated with acute alcohol intoxication are (in decreasing order of frequency) P-wave and QTc prolongation, followed by T-wave abnormalities and QRS complex prolongation. Mostly, these changes are completely reversible.

Keywords: ECG, Alcohol, Alcohol and arrhythmia, Alcohol intoxication, Ethanol toxicity.