PACs, PVCs, and Afib

[KLB32]

Can anyone tell me if you can notice the difference between PVCs and PACs?  Sometimes my palps feel different.  Mostly they are the kind that have the definite pause then the hard THUMP.  Those are PVCs.  But other times, I feel like a fluttering sensation and sometimes like my heart does a flip flop.  I am wondering if those are a different type of palp like a PAC or possibly Afib.

Alot of you talk about having Afib episodes.  What does it feel like?  The only thing I have been able to catch on monitors are PVCs and occassional sinus tachycardia which I was told was harmless.

[PghPanther]

I wonder about the same thing......

I get PVCs (bump bump Thump!???)

I get PACs (flutter flutter fluter!??)

and I have loan Afib............but can't tell if an irregular pulse even at a slow rate is afib or not?

My test results of a heart halter say no afib........(haven't had any since I changed my exercise routine back in January)

But those PVCs and PACs give me the creeps as I've been told if you get enough of them in a row they can kick in afib.........

Funny but it seems heart doctors just don't know much about benign heart issues do they?

[Waldem]

I don't think that most people can reliably tell the difference between a PVC and a PAC from the feel of the palpitations. I have PACs, and they feel all different kinds of ways. Some of them I don't feel at all. Some are very subtle. Some feel like someone banging on the inside of my chest with their fist. When they are coming constantly, they feel similar to the one time I had a-fib. The difference there is that with the PACs I can detect a pattern in the pulse, like 2 regular beats followed by a premature one, over and over, while with a-fib the pulse never settled into any kind of a pattern.

With both PACs and PVCs the ventricle is contracting prematurely, and that is what you feel. The difference between them is whether the electrical signal that triggers the premature beat originates from the atrium or the ventricle. I don't think most people can feel that difference.