Brugada Syndrome Associated With Adolescent Loperamide Abuse

We present the case of a 14-year-old boy with obesity, hypertension, and chronic loperamide abuse who presented to our facility with symptoms of opioid withdrawal and type 1 Brugada pattern on an electrocardiogram. He was treated for anxiety and withdrawal. There were no documented dysrhythmias. His Brugada pattern resolved by hospital day 5 and remained resolved 12 days postadmission. Genetic testing revealed a heterozygous missense mutation in the SCN5A gene (c. 5038G>A, p. Ala1680Thr), which has been reported in association with Brugada syndrome. To date, there are no published reports of pediatric loperamide use associated with a Brugada pattern on an electrocardiogram. We propose that chronic loperamide use unmasked the electrocardiographic phenotype associated with his gene mutation.