Three Empty Bottles and a Wide QRS: Rapid Alkalinization Rescue in Propafenone Overdose
Afnan Chaudhry, Ibrahim Inanc, Saad Khan, George Prousi, Shilla Zachariah · 2026
Read Three Empty Bottles and a Wide QRS: Rapid Alkalinization Rescue in Propafenone Overdose by Afnan Chaudhry, Ibrahim Inanc, Saad Khan, George Prousi, Shilla Zachariah (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13331456.txt.
Description
Afnan Chaudhry and co-authors present a 2026 case report of a young man found unresponsive after taking at least 600 mg of propafenone along with other drugs. His heart tracing showed a sustained wide-complex fast rhythm, and his blood work showed severe acid build-up and kidney injury.
Propafenone blocks sodium channels, and the team treated that effect with an intravenous sodium bicarbonate drip aimed at mild alkalemia, plus close supportive care in intensive care. Within an hour the abnormal rhythm settled, the QRS complex narrowed, and sinus rhythm returned, with tracings still improving over the next day. The authors present QRS width as a live gauge of poisoning severity and argue for early bicarbonate treatment in this kind of overdose.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Afnan Chaudhry, Ibrahim Inanc, Saad Khan, George Prousi, Shilla Zachariah |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 15057 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |