I am an athletic male, 53. About 6 months ago, I had an rf ablation of a PV focus to esentially cure PAF which started about 1.5 years ago. The cardio/ep specialist (Marchlinski, UPenn) indicated that several other foci were located, however, these were only responsible for premature atrial depolarizations and were not treated. I am now on 200mg/day tambocor to attenuate the atrial response to these PV foci (automaticity), which, for the most part appears to be doing a good job.
I have noted that exercise appears to be the key in getting these foci "fired" up. During periods (weeks) when I have not engaged in any vigorous exercise, there is no premature atrial activity. After working out (running, soccer, etc), there is generally a period of several days wherein the foci appear to have been "irritated" and produce APDs (up to 6/min w/o tambocor; less than 1/min w tambocor). There is an additional troublesome presentation in my case, wherein I can actually feel the foci firing (with the pulse remaining regular), particularly at night given a surge of adrenaline due to a vivid dream (I know this sounds strange, but the ep says it's possible).
Now the question...
Since exercise appears to irritate the PV foci (and life-long exercise may have gotten me into this situation), is it possible that continued exercise will damage these PV foci further, causing them to remain continuously "irritated"? Should I stop with the vigorous workouts and relegate myself to long walks in the park? I know that most times these things don't go away by themselves, but do they get worse?
Thanks for your help.