I experience premature ventricular contractions. Will it ever go away?

Question

Hello doctor,

Since approximately eight months, I experience premature ventricular contractions (feeling of heartbeat skipping). I never had shortness of breath, severe chest pain, heavy sweating or dizziness, or like I will pass out. It also never goes on for several minutes, just around 10 to 20 a day. I went to see a cardiologist, who did an ECG and echo - said there is nothing to worry about and this is normal. He said to call him when more per minute (so a lot of PVC each minute). He also said it is not stress related, but I have highly stressful work. I am still a little worried. Will it never go away and can it, in the long run, hurt me?

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I passed carefully through your question and would explain that some PVC or ectopic heartbeats are quite normal in every healthy individual during emotional stress or physical activity. Anyway, a cardiac arrhythmia cannot be excluded either. Coming to this point, I would recommend performing an ambulatory 24 to 48 hours ECG monitoring (Holter) to examine your heart rhythm trends for a prolonged time and investigate for possible cardiac arrhythmia. Some blood lab tests are needed to exclude some metabolic disorders which may trigger this clinical scenario. Do Complete blood count for anemia, thyroid hormone levels for thyroid gland dysfunction, and blood electrolytes for possible imbalance. If all these tests result normal, you should consider anxiety as a possible cause of your complaints. In such case, consulting with a specialist in this field (physiotherapist, psychiatrist) would be needed. If the situation persists, a low dose of beta-blockers (Metoprolol) could help reduce the ectopic heartbeats.

I experience premature ventricular contractions. Will it ever go away?

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