Heart Rhythm Conditions – Welcome to the group

@johnpny
You are of course correct about the information. I had beed victim to PVCs for a very long time and have the resultant damage they cause. Various tests, including 2 of those stress inducing tests done with chemicals as I could not run a tread mill prior to my bypass and then the increase from 10/minute(2013) to 20/minute(2015). While I was in hospital for 3 days prior to and then 4 days following the bypass the monitors were able to give a very clear picture to the M.D.s so they were able to basically spot the exact location to ablate.

Had not realized until now that those days of monitoring were what were needed to pinpoint the exact location of the nerve that was misfiring. I still get them, but not more than 3/minute and then only under great stressful conditions. My cardiologist told me that having the Bradycardia (as low as 36BPM while sleeping) can allow the stray PVC, but they happen while my BPM is often higher, and not while I'm sleeping.

To monitor the PVCs I own a portable ECG device that slaps on the back of an iPOD or could go on an iPhone. It is from Kardia. I do not feel the PVCs as they are not as strongly felt, but that could be due to the damage initially done to my heart by the excessive PVCs.

@lalton , @johnpny thank you both. I seem to have lucked into a string of experienced cardiologists with good credentials. The PVCs were dramatic enough (number, effect) for them to skip quickly to ablation before more damage to the muscle occurs. I only wish I could blame it on being a high end athlete but I am not that rigorous. The docs did the monitor and are pretty sure of the general location of the aberrant cells so I’m hopeful. Thanks again.

Sorry to hear of your problems. This is rarely a medical condition with a quick fix. PVCs can often be thought of in oversimplifjed terms as an electrical signal bouncing off a zone of bad tissue. The signal can often be rerouted by destroying the related path, but only if a specific location giving rise to the pvc can be observed. This is often done by observing the number and types of pvcs recorded on a 24 hour test, or when mapping during a study when an ablation is to be attempted.

Then there are meds

Doctors will almost always start with safe medicines that might not be as strong. They can often rotate through medicines, or combinations, to see which work and what you can tolerate. It’s always about balancing the risk of the PVCs vs the side effects of the meds. In some cases they will not start a new med unless you are in the hospital hooked up so that you can be observed

Hi Tom,
high end athletic stress on your heart can cause it. many olympic athletes have it.
best wishes,
Larry

As I understand it, Vagal stimulus include bearing down, inflicting pain upon yourself, inducing vomiting, and a host of other types of methods to stimulate an epinephrine response to change your rhythm. No meds prescribed yet because they didn’t know exactly what they were dealing with.

Hi my name is Tom. I’m a seventy year old white male. I have recently been diagnosed with PVCs. They came on like a thief in the night with the principal symptom being inability to draw breath (fluid in left lung). My PCP, refered me to a Pulmonologist who in turn sent me to a Cardiologist. ECG disclosed the PVCs. Echo cardiogram showed really bad efficiency. Cardiac MRI to look for damage (still waiting for interpretation), and ablation scheduled in two weeks. Currently taking metropololol and a diureticbut the condition is barely controlled. I would love to know a couple of things like: what did I do to cause these? I’ve always been a competitive or amateur swimmer and distance runner. Heart never had a problem before.

What are "vagal maneuvers"? Have you tried meds to keep the heart in rhythm?

I am 60 y/o with 3 grown children and 3 grandchildren. I’m also the 8th of 12 children. I had my first Tachycardia episode in my 20’s. I saw a cardiologist who gave me vagal maneuvers to bring me back to normal rhythm which worked on the rare occasion I needed them until last year. Last year my episodes increased and the vagal maneuvers quit working. Each episode lasted 20-30 minutes and normal rhythm returned on its own. Despite extensive investigation in the past year and having an event monitor for 2 months, I hadn’t been able to record an episode so doctors could evaluate effectively. Last week, I got to ER immediately and now have a better understanding. It’s SVT, which likely will need ablation to correct. I’m looking forward to a solution.

Thanks, my story - I’m 56, I’ve noticed palpitations since early adulthood. They grew more frequent and bothersome by my 30s. There were a few times I literally felt like my heart was stopping and I would often feel light headed when this happened. It was quite scary and I would relay to doctors that I thought I was in serious danger. They would check me out and tell me everyone has palpitations, and perhaps I was just anxious. At age 39 I passed out while swimming in the ocean and woke up underwater. I eventually was monitored and a short run of V Tach was noted. Then during an EP study the doctor was able to induce Vfib. I got an ICD and it went off over the years, but the device also noted other short runs that stopped on their own. To be honest, the ICD shock itself was never much of an issue for me, but the idea that the device was trying to treat a life threatening emergency most certainly was. I also had worsening mitral valve prolapse. I eventually had a mitral valve repair which helped with symptoms, though I still had more events during exercise. The puzzle with me was that exercise (catecholamines) was a trigger, and as my valve got worse, it became easier to observe VT on a treadmill test. I eventually got a sympathetic denervation, and then a second EP study, which included an extensive ventricular ablation. The doctor confirmed tissue / electrical abnormality around the mitral valve, which was giving rise to the malignant arrhythmias. Since this procedure I have not have an event though it is still worrisome and the medications take getting used to (toprol and flecainide). I seem to be one of the few people with bileaflet mitral valve prolapse that coincides with malignant arrhythmias. My guess is more will be learned about this condition (my honest guess is that this condition may result in more unexplained sudden deaths than documented today). I also suspect that more research and more advanced mapping and ablation techniques may offer more treatment options in the future.

Hi my name is Juan, I’m 31 years old, I have a flutter besides some other issues in my heart