48 year old female suffering from ventricular arrhythmia

[Jay1960]

I was just diagnosed with this on a 24 hr holter monitor.   The longest run is 8 beats in duration with clear fusion beat confirming this diagnosis.  

Impression:  Sinus rhythm to tachycardia with occasional ventricular ectopy and several short runs of nonsustained ventricular tachaycardia correlating with symptoms early one morning.  

What does that all mean, I am nervous as my cardiologist appt isn't until 2 months and I have read about people dying with VT sudden death and that terrifies me.  Needless to say i am having more episodes  which could be due to anxiety over this situation.  Can someone please help me read this diagnosis.

Thank you.

Jay

[Momto3]

Hi Jay1960,

I am not a doctor, but have had these types of arrythmias for many years.  Try not to worry; I'll bet you are just fine : )

An 8-beat run of NSVT may feel quite strange, but it is generally not a problem unless you have underlying heart disease or heart anomalies.  Your doctor may suggest a beta blocker to slow down or prevent some of the irregular beats (if they bother you).  Are you very symptomatic?  To give you an idea of how common these beats are....when I had a Holter and it showed 22,000+ PVCs (isolated, couplets, triplets, nsvt, bigeminy) the doctor was not concerned.  I could take a beta blocker if I wanted, but in the setting of a structurally normal heart, I was not in any danger.  If you were having prolonged episodes of VT (tachy lasting longer than 30 seconds), the doctor would probably treat you more assertively.  I also believe if the doctor were truly concerned, your appointment would be much sooner.  Be sure to keep us posted on how you're doing.  We're not doctors, but many of us have been there, done that : )

[Jay1960]

Thank you so much for your information and concern.

God bless you too Susie!

[SassyLassie]

Try to calm down, remember, if it were really serious, I am sure the cardiologist would have scheduled your appointment right away. Apparently, he/she is not too concerned. I know you are worried, and that is naturally, however, they see so much of this, it is a common occurance.

I believe there are several others on these forums that have the nonsustained ventricular tachaycardia, they can correlate to stress, and, from I have read, are fairly common to some folks. Try doing a search on this site using the term "nonsustained ventricular tachaycardia" this will bring up posts of others who have had this problem.

"Impression:  Sinus rhythm to tachycardia with occasional ventricular ectopy and several short runs of nonsustained ventricular tachaycardia correlating with symptoms early one morning."   This means that your heart was in a normal rhythm but beating faster than 100 beats a minute, the normal heart beats around 60 to 100 a minute, but, it can vary in each person. The occasional ventricular ectopy is another word for PVC, I think, and the short runs of the NSVT means that they went along with the symptoms you may have reported during the morning. I am not a doctor by any means, but, it does not sound too bad, especially since you were more than likely nervous. Our bodies can pull all sorts of stunts on us when we are uptight.

I hope this is of some help to you.

God bless.
Susie