[Dragonfly2756]

Do PVCs lead to v-tach? -Doctors Lounge(TM)

[CMoore416]

Thanks for sharing this! I really needed to hear this tonight

[dr461]

This says it all, by a medical technician who does cardiac work all the time:

"PVCs, without any other electrical or structural abnormality, are of virtually no diagnostic nor prognostic value at all. They occur in everyone in various sorts of patterns, and again, absent any structural or neurocardiological disease, they have no real meaning. They can, however, be very alarming when they occur, and can provoke a good deal of anxiety which, unforntunately, causes the release of adrenaline, which in turn makes the heart muscle more irritable, and often thus sets off yet more PVCs, sometimes making the sufferer a nervous wreck. This is truly unfortunate, because without significant left ventricular dysfunction PVCs have no meaning at all (and even with LV dysfunction they are only an indicator, not a cause, of potential trouble).

In short, your doctor is appropriately circumspect in his answer, and PVCs really are almost always best ignored -- if possible. Sometimes it can be difficult to ignore them, which is the big problem. If they are very frequent or bothersome sometimes the doctor will prescribe a beta blocker to reduce the frequency of them, which usually helps cut down on their frequency and makes them more difficult to percieve, so that is a fallback possibility if they start to really bother you. Still, they have virtually no clinical significance otherwise, and often this knowlege is sufficient to ease the mind of a given patient enough that they are no longer seen as a problem. Hopefully this will be the case with you."

[CMoore416]

That's me - a nervous wreck! Lol

[Susie]

Me too, CM, a nervous wreck.

Thanks for posting Dragonfly, what an awesome article. Gee, I wish I had a doctor like that.