Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation after insect sting

We report an unusual cardiac reaction to insect sting, consisting in an episode of paroxysmal atral fibrillation in an otherwise healthy man. In order to validate the hypothesis that the cardiac complication was due to the chemical substance injected by the insect, we isolated the the venom and injected it subcutaneously to the subject under supervision of a cardiology team. The same cardiac complication was observed. The putative responsible of the reaction was represented by a peculiar pattern of released cytokines.