PVC's Question

[ericaj]

Can anyone tell me anything about PVC's? Are they of any significance in valve disease or with arrhythmias such as SVT? What is teh difference between PVC's and PAC's?

Thanks,
Erica

 

[bvdr]

Hi Erica,

The difference between PACs and PVCs is where the impulse for the contraction originates. PACs originate form the Atria and the PVCs originate form the Ventricles.

Almost everyone has PACs on occasion and probably aren't even aware of it. Most often they are harmless and cause no problems. Sometimes, however, they can be very frequent and distracting and be so bothersome that medication might be prescribed to reduce the numbers. Sometimes a low-dose beta-blocker is used for this purpose.

Now PVCs are viewed somewhat differently. As with PACs, probably everyone has one now and then. Sometimes a PVC is felt like a flip-flop or a little jump in the chest. A PVC now and again usually causes no alarm. It is when a person starts getting very frequent ones or they start occurring in pairs or triplets that treatment is given. The concern is that if one of PVCs happens to fall at the wrong time in the electrical recovery of a heartbeat it can sometimes start a run of V-tach which is very very rapid PVCs without any normal beats at all. That is just too hard on a heart and it can't pump blood effectively and can lead to death.

SVT is different in that it is initiated in the upper chambers but the heart beats very fast and regular as well. Many times people who have valvular disease have problems with atrial fib and also SVT. When the left atrium begins to enlarge, as it so often does in mitral stenosis and mitral regurgitation, it puts stress on the areas of the heart that initiate heartbeats and all kinds of arrhythmias occur.

Electrolyte imbalances can make all these arrhythmias more pronounced. Low potassium is often the culprit for increases of PVCs and PACs. The CHF that developes with many valve patients also makes them worse.

Does that help a little?

 

[ericaj]

thanks

thanks

Hi,

Thank you that does help to figure out the differences and stuff. When I talk to my EP's clinical nurse again tomorrow I am going to ask her if my pvc's where single runs or more than 1 occuring at teh time caught on the event monitor I am wearing. She had asked if these where the normal symptoms I was having or if what I experience arrhythmia wise is different. She did say that what I felt as skipped beats was a premature beat in the ventricles. Same thing as pvc's right?

Thanks alot for your help,
Always,
Erica

 

[Susan BAV]

Good information, Betty.

Erica - As my valve "declined," I had ever-increasing PVCs with V-Tach. Sometimes those crazy beats would go on for hours with little rest. Those arrythmias are what finally caused me to drag myself back into the cardiologist's office, when my echo showed how much worse my valve had become. The day I wore the Holtor monitor, however, wasn't a particularly "busy" day for my PVCs, showing only a few hundred PVCs and some V-Tach. But, in hindsight, I realize that the premature beats were becoming evermore constant as my valve became worse and worse.

 

[tobagotwo]

Sounds like you got what you needed already. This was from an earlier thread, if you wanted more:

http://www.valvereplacement.com/forums/showthread.php?p=83337#post83337post83337

I had a genuine Gene Krupa - Ginger Baker drum-off going on in my chest in the last months before surgery. If I hurried for the phone, I felt like I couldn't hear the person over the clatter under my ribs. At night, they got into their grooves: swing jazz on the left and good ol' Rock and Roll on the right. I was amazed my wife didn't hear it.

It went away, two days after the valve was replaced. I had one night of afib, and it was basically over. I wish you the same speedy relief.

Best wishes,

 

[brendamarlene]

I had PVC's before my surgery as well as after. A specialist was called in to see me in the hospital after my surgery, and he told me not to worry about them and not to take any meds for them, either. I got the impression that the docs were surprised that I still had them after my surgery. I still have them???! Now I wonder if they are getting worse as it is getting closer to the need for my resurgery???

 

[bvdr]

This is just another bit of information to help you understand PVCs.

The heart is really a remarkable organ and has some safety systems built right into it. One of these is the fact that every single cardiac cell has the ability to elicit an electrical impulse that can result in a heart contraction (heartbeat). If for instance, the upper chambers of the heart aren't keeping up with the body's demand, then the lower chambers will take over on their own and start adding extra beats. This is the reason that sometimes people with very low heart rates start having more PVCs. In that instance they are desirable and you don't want to eliminate them.

It can get very complicated so the overall picture needs to be considered before doing anything about them.