Proton pump inhibitor use is not associated with cardiac arrhythmia in critically ill patients

Hypomagnesemia can lead to cardiac arrythmias. Recently, observational data have linked chronic proton pump inhibitor (PPI) exposure to hypomagnesemia. Whether PPI exposure increases the risk for arrhythmias has not been well studied. Using a large, single-center inception cohort of critically ill patients, we examined whether PPI exposure was associated with admission electrocardiogram readings of a cardiac arrhythmia in more than 8000 patients. There were 25.4% PPI users, whereas 6% were taking a histamine 2 antagonist. In all, 14.0% had a cardiac arrhythmia. PPI use was associated with an unadjusted risk of arrhythmia of 1.15 (95% CI,1.00-1.32; P =.04) and an adjusted risk of arrhythmia of 0.91 (95% CI, 0.77-1.06; P =.22). Among diuretic users (n = 2476), PPI use was similarly not associated with an increased risk of cardiac arrhythmia. In summary, in a large cohort of critically ill patients, PPI exposure is not associated with an increased risk of cardiac arrhythmia.