ECG Results

There are several possibilities, including that the person reading the ECG knows the machine didn't detect anything objectionable, or enough of it to be of concern, or the machine was not hooked up properly, or was hooked up to you appropriately but not reading all leads correctly, or the machine's idiosyncrasies are well known and it shows what it reports while the tech knows better....and on and on it goes.
Ectopy is the generic name for premature ventricular and/or atrial complexes, PVCs and PACS for short. They are extra beats out of step with the otherwise normal rhythm, sinus rhythm, that the heart shows when not experiencing ectopy. A competent ECG reader would be able to tell which of those two it is in your case by the leads that show it. In your case, it is apparently atrial in origin. To put you immediately at ease, everyone, and I do mean everyone, has PACs now and then. They come and go. Most people have between 1-30 each day. It is when they number more than 77 each hour that their 'burden' on you is deemed to be excessive and an intervention may be discussed with an electrophysiologist....BUT....this depends on how symptomatic you are. If you are not bothered unduly by them, if you don't sense them well, if they don't rob you of sleep, if they don't make you anxious, and if they don't seem to be progressing in terms of lengths of run or frequency, then an electrophysiologist would probably want to do nothing. They are not lethal.

Thanks very much. This is helpful and very much appreciated.

Hi, Perhaps you may wish to invest in a EKG home mobile phone device for your peace of mind. My story: I have idiopathic heart failure with a PVC load ranging from of 0 PVCs/minute to 32 PVCs/ minute. Heart heart rate varies from 56 to 72 on average around the house. EF fraction ranges from 30 - 39 % on any given day. I use a Kardia Care ECG - EKG device to monitor my PVCs 2 -3 times daily. My PVCs are painless and I seldom feel them at all. I am nearly fainting before I realize it's a problem. My PVC load is 0% to 50% on any given day. Determining the PVC or PAC load is helpful to adjusting your activity level to protect your heart. PVC or PAC load is a percentage of irregular heart beats in a given minute. My cardilogist told me when my PVC load is over 10% to take it easy. PAC loads are higher and have a different scale. To get your load percentage: (divide the # of PVCs per minute by heart beats per minute) or (PACs per minute by heart beats per minute.) Also when my heart goes into bradycardia (lower than 58 beats/minute or tachycardia over 95 BPM) I send those EKG/ECGs to my cadrio team in an abundance of caution. You are unique. Everyone is different and every heart and body responds differently to medications. Good luck and keep asking these good questions. Knowledge is power.

I had the same experience some time ago as did a business friend around the same time. We have different Cardiologists. When we contacted our MDs respectively, the MDs both said the same thing -- not the exact words here but that was a factor in how the settings in the equipment functions. In their experience our readings were in the Normal range. Still -- never hurts to ask.

The short and skinny is this is most likely much to do about nothing. It is quite normal to have a few PVCs/PACs in any given moment in time. That ECG represented a pure singular moment in time and in that moment you had some ectopic beats. Ideally you would have to wear a monitor to see if you were experiencing a significant number of beats over time. Although if you learn how to use a Kardia you can learn to read and interpret how many you are having. This had nothing to do with the machine being hooked up incorrectly. The tech would read it right on the spot and redo the ECG. I went thought a period last year when 25% of my beats for the month where ectopic. Now that is a lot and it is noticeably uncomfortable. You feel like someone is beating on the inside of your chest. Not everybody feels this discomfort. I have cut firewood with my heart doing this. I am 77. Durning my Afib ablation last Sept the doc worked on it but said he was hopeful but he does not do ectopic ablations because are extremely difficult to get rid to them. But he was in there anyhow so he said he tried as best he could.