• Cheyenne Beach, Elisa Marcuccio, Lee Beerman, and Gaurav Arora.
• Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and cheyenne.beach@chp.edu.
• Pediatrics. 2015 Aug 1; 136 (2): e527-9.

AbstractAcute asthma exacerbations occur relatively frequently in children. We present the case of a 4-year-old boy who was admitted to our hospital in status asthmaticus and found to have a wide complex rhythm while being treated with inhaled albuterol and intravenous methylprednisolone. This rhythm was diagnosed as accelerated idioventricular rhythm (AIVR), which carries a benign prognosis. It resolved as the medications used to treat his asthma exacerbation were weaned. There was no ventricular ectopy seen on a 24-hour Holter monitor performed 3 months after his hospitalization, suggesting that the AIVR was related to the medications the patient was receiving at the time. This case suggests that albuterol may be a risk factor for the development of AIVR and highlights the importance of recognizing this rhythm to avoid unnecessary and potentially harmful therapies. Copyright © 2015 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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