EFFECT OF WHISKEY ON ATRIAL VULNERABILITY AND HOLIDAY HEART

[摘要] Vulnerability of atrial fibrillation and flutter was examined in 11 alcohol abusers who did not have cardiomyopathy or manifest heart failure. Atrial extrastimulation was done with rapid pacing (drive cycle length 500 ms) to facilitate induction of atrial vulnerability, seen in 4 alcohol abusers. The remaining 7 were retested 30 min after drinking 60 to 120 ml of 86 proof whiskey (ethanol blood levels were 49 to 101 mg/100 ml but pulmonary capillary wedge pressure remained normal in all) and atrial fibrillation or flutter was induced in 3 of the drinkers. Three nondrinkers, symptomatic with sinus bradycardia but not in heart failure, were found not to be vulnerable to atrial fibrillation or flutter, but flutter was induced in 2 of the 3 after drinking whiskey. Whiskey did not alter atrial functional refractory periods (mean .+-. standard error of the mean 297 .+-. 14 to 290 .+-. 12 ms) or widen the dispersion among 3 disparate right atrial sites (57 .+-. 13 to 47 .+-. 12 ms). Whiskey evidently enhances vulnerability to atrial fibrillation and flutter in patients without heart failure or cardiomyopathy, substantiating the holiday heart syndrome.