Alcohol consumption, sinus tachycardia, and cardiac arrhythmias at the Munich Octoberfest: results from the Munich Beer Related Electrocardiogram Workup Study (MunichBREW)

Aims Alcohol is a risk factor for cardiac arrhythmias. Retrospective analyses suggest supraventricular arrhythmias consecutive to acute alcohol consumption, but prospective data are limited. We intended to prospectively associate acute alcohol consumption with cardiac arrhythmias. Methods and results At the 2015 Munich Octoberfest, we enrolled 3028 voluntary participants who received a smartphone-based ECG and breath alcohol concentration (BAC) measurements. ECGs were analysed for cardiac arrhythmias (sinus tachycardia, sinus arrhythmia, premature atrial/ventricular complexes, atrial fibrillation/flutter) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia. By multivariable adjusted logistic regression we associated BACs with cardiac arrhythmias. Similarly, we analysed 4131 participants of the community-based KORA S4 Study (Co-operative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg) and associated cardiac arrhythmias with chronic alcohol consumption. In our acute alcohol cohort (mean age 34.4 +/- 13.3 years, 29% women), mean BAC was 0.85 +/- 0.54 g/kg. Cardiac arrhythmias occurred in 30.5% (sinus tachycardia 25.9%; other arrhythmia subtypes 5.4%). Breath alcohol concentration was significantly associated with cardiac arrhythmias overall (odds ratio (OR) per 1-unit change 1.75, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.50-2.05; P < 0.001) and sinus tachycardia in particular (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.66-2.31; P < 0.001). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia measuring autonomic tone was significantly reduced under the influence of alcohol. In KORA S4, chronic alcohol consumption was associated with sinus tachycardia (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.06; P = 0.006). Conclusions Acute alcohol consumption is associated with cardiac arrhythmias and sinus tachycardia in particular. This partly reflects autonomic imbalance as assessed by significantly reduced respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Such imbalance might lead to sympathetically triggered atrial fibrillation resembling the holiday heart syndrome.