For Dr. Michael J McWilliams

Hi, I also have frequent PVC's, some after exercise but also more in the evenings.  I take 25 mg atenolol in the am and 10 mg licinopril in the pm for elevated blood pressure, and 10 mg simvistatin for elevated cholesterol.  I have obesity and both parents have had cardiac issues, my dad a quad bypass in late 60's and mom had mild heart attach in mid-late 60's.  I am 53.  I have recently started watching my eating and doing some walking 30 mins per day to lose weight and improve fitness.  My recent EKG's and echocardiogram,  and stress test of about a year ago,  were OK, and doc said they didn't see anything "suspicious" on my recent 24 hour holter monitor, but I plan to get an event monitor as well soon.

You mentioned a few times a study that indicates PVC's in the recovery phase of exercise have a correlation to increased risk of cardiac events, and that the cause is not known (i.e. not known whether the cause is the PVC or whether the PVCs are just a marker for other causal factors).  Would you please share the source of the study or studies- the journal issues and references?

Thanks,
T.


This discussion is related to When taking pulse after exercise I feel skiped beat.

[Wisconsin2007]

I don't think the good doctor responds in the community forum; rather he responds (though a lot less lately) in the Experts forum.  I'm going from memory here, but the study that was done was conducted by the Cleveland Clinic and involved 29,000 patients with a median age of 56.  They defined frequent ventricular ectopy as >7 per minute.  What they found was, after they corrected for existing heart problems (that predisposed some to having cardiac events), that among those 29,000 people, those who had more than 7 PVCs during the recovery phase of exercise ONLY were 50% more likely than the general population to die during the length of the study (5 years).  If that number of PVCs happened during recovery but also at other times, it was not a predictor or death.

Again, this is going from memory, so someone please jump in if I have a part of this incorrect.

[tuxedo]

Hi Wisconsin2007, thanks for your post.  Based on the Cleveland Clinic you mentioned, I was able to find some other related posts in this forum on Google  

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Heart-Disease/exercise-and-PVCs/show/253459  ;

as well as a reference to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that says people with PVC's after exercise are at 50% increased risk to die in 5 years than those without PVC's after exercise:

http://preventdisease.com/news/articles/rethinking_treadmill_test.shtml

I'm just not going to worry too much about these and focus more on controlling weight, bp and exercising moderately.

Thanks again!
T.