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American Journal of Medical Case Reports. 2020, 8(8), 235-236
DOI: 10.12691/AJMCR-8-8-5
Case Report

Hypothyroidism Presenting as Recurrent Syncopal Attacks: A Missed Diagnosis

Mohammad Alhamaydeh1, , Hassan Awais1, Majed Ghaly1 and Genevieve Everett1

1Internal Medicine Department, Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, United States

Pub. Date: May 11, 2020
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Cite this paper

Mohammad Alhamaydeh, Hassan Awais, Majed Ghaly and Genevieve Everett. Hypothyroidism Presenting as Recurrent Syncopal Attacks: A Missed Diagnosis. American Journal of Medical Case Reports. 2020; 8(8):235-236. doi: 10.12691/AJMCR-8-8-5

Abstract

Myxedema coma is a severe hypothyroidism which usually occurs due to long-standing, undiagnosed, or untreated hypothyroidism. Fortunately, Myxedema coma is now a rare presentation of hypothyroidism, likely due to earlier diagnosis as most of physicians are familiar with classic signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism and widespread availability of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) assays. However it might be associated with several cardiac arrhythmias including; sinus bradycardia, ventricular tachycardia, and torsade de pointes. We report a case of a 53 year old female who presented with several episodes of syncope that was associated with intermittent torsade de pointes found to have severe hypothyroidism with complete reversal of her symptoms after she was started on thyroid hormonal replacement.

Keywords

hypothyroidism, torsade de pointes, ventricular arrhythmia, myxedema

Copyright

Creative CommonsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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