Nutrition Health Chat: Tuesday, Dec. 8th, 5-6 PM Eastern. Learn how vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients affect your health. Free live Q&A. Join us!
Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
pvc's and chest discomfort
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
pvc's and chest discomfort
by Santrac, Jun 19, 2007 12:00AM
Is there anything other than beta blockers that can control PVC's? I am in bigeminy most of the time. I have had severe insomnia for 7 years,(zero per cent deep sleep)and the pvc's keep me awake even more. I have a lot of chest pain and neck pain on the left side. The main question I have is,can doctors do an ablation to stop the pvc's. My quality of life is suffering and I just want them to stop.
Doctor's Answer
by Forum-M.D.-MJM, Jun 19, 2007 12:00AM
Hello,
Sorry to hear about your symptoms. There are options for people with severe symptoms from PVCs that do not improved with beta blockers: medical therapy with medications like flecainide or ablation.
Ablation is an option for people with PVCs of the same shape (morphology) on 12 lead EKG, preferably coming from the right ventricular outflow tract location. The RV outflow tract is an easier to ablate compared to other locations. If there are multiple morphologies, the ablation is more difficult and is less likely to be succesful.
Medications like flecainide can suppress PVCs. It is a good option for people with structurally normal hearts and no coronary artery disease. There is an increased incidence of dangerous arrhythmias in people with coronary artery disease. Peope with reduced heart function or conduction system disease can have progression of their dysfunction on medications like flecainide. Rhythmol, Sotalol and Tikosyn are other options, but most prefer to use flecainide. The use of flecainide also requires that a beta blocker be given. If you develop an arrhythmia like atrial flutter, flecainide can cause the rhythm to conduct very quickly, beta blockers are used to decrease this risk. Flecainide is a good option for the appropriate patient -- it sounds like you might qualify.
I hope this anwers your questions. Thanks for posting.
Sorry to hear about your symptoms. There are options for people with severe symptoms from PVCs that do not improved with beta blockers: medical therapy with medications like flecainide or ablation.
Ablation is an option for people with PVCs of the same shape (morphology) on 12 lead EKG, preferably coming from the right ventricular outflow tract location. The RV outflow tract is an easier to ablate compared to other locations. If there are multiple morphologies, the ablation is more difficult and is less likely to be succesful.
Medications like flecainide can suppress PVCs. It is a good option for people with structurally normal hearts and no coronary artery disease. There is an increased incidence of dangerous arrhythmias in people with coronary artery disease. Peope with reduced heart function or conduction system disease can have progression of their dysfunction on medications like flecainide. Rhythmol, Sotalol and Tikosyn are other options, but most prefer to use flecainide. The use of flecainide also requires that a beta blocker be given. If you develop an arrhythmia like atrial flutter, flecainide can cause the rhythm to conduct very quickly, beta blockers are used to decrease this risk. Flecainide is a good option for the appropriate patient -- it sounds like you might qualify.
I hope this anwers your questions. Thanks for posting.
Member Comments (2)
by julianne07, Jun 20, 2007 12:00AM
I know what you are going through, I have PCV's really bad at night, I also have them every other beat and it really puts a spin on my sleeping. I wake up having night terrors a lot because I go to bed thinking about it. I usually sleep at my boyfriends if its really bad, having someone there eases my mind a bit.
