Diuretics, digitalis and arrhythmias

Arrhythmias induced by digitalis are believed to be secondary to changes in ion concentrations in the myocardial cells or changes in the transcellular ion gradient. Both diuretic induced hypokalemia and digitalis inhibit the membrane-Na+K+ ATPase activity which cause a decrease of the intracellular potassium concentration. This may explain the risk of cardiac arrhythmias during digitalis treatment and during severe hypokalemia, and may further explain the increase for myocardial sensitivity for digitalis when hypokalemia is present. The myocardial uptake of digitalis however is markedly increased at low extracellular potassium concentration and this may be the explanation of the interaction between digitalis and hypokalemia. Not only the myocardial digoxin kinetic is changed during hypokalemia but the renal excretion rate of digoxin is markedly reduced during hypokalemia leading to increased serum digoxin concentration and thereby the risk of digitalis intoxication.