Arrhythmias Related to Coffee and Tea

Abstract

To the Editor.— Tucked away in the first line of the quotation in "The Other End of the Stick" ( 210: 896, 1969) is an account of a common error in the management of myocardial infarction. The words, "I was sitting up in bed after tea," do not necessarily mean in British vernacular that the patient in reality had consumed tea, but within the broader meaning of the words, no doubt a beverage containing caffeine or theophylline was consumed together with other goodies. Since tea and coffee are well known to produce minor cardiac arrhythmias, particularly ventricular premature contractions, it is not surprising that an episode of a more serious arrhythmia might have developed shortly after the patient consumed his "tea." It has always amazed me that tea, coffee, and occasionally cola drinks are consumed by patients in a coronary care unit, when so much other effort is directed by the