Holter Monitoring, what does occassioanl pvc mean??

[shellylabelle]

I had a holter monitor test done for 24 hours.  It said occasional pvcs.  How many pvcs is that?  My cardiologist said 1000.  My internal medicine doctor never mentioned that number.  He said that it is normal.  My cardiologist said that it is normal also.  Is it really 1000 in 24 hours?

[shellylabelle]

Yes, I have had a stress test and an echo.  Both were normal.  I don't drink caffeinated drinks or eat chocolate.

[whisperwolf]

A PVC is a premature ventricular contraction. Basically it means your heart is skipping a beat. It kind of depends on how the pvc's come. If they are random, then they are not as worrysome as they would be if they came in groups of 3 or more at a time.


Have you had other tests on your heart such as an Echocardiogram or stress test? That would help rule out other heart problems such as a prolapsed mitral valve.

Lots of caffeine and certain medications can also cause pvc's.

[is_something_wrong]

It may be that your cardiologist answered your question in general terms, how much he would label "occational", not how many you did have. Remember, those terms (rare, occational, frequent, etc) aren't exactly SI units, and they vary quite a bit from doctor to doctor.

Most people do NOT have 1000 PVCs each day. That said, having 1000 a day isn't necessarily dangerous at all, most likely it's not. As my cardiologist (EP) said, some people have thousands a day without noticing them, and some people may have one or two and go crazy.

My point is, some doctors may label 30 PACs/PVCs "occational" and some doctors may say that occational is 1000 or more. It depends. Ask your doctor how many you actually had.

Happy holidays!

[MichelleP_3811]

I see you had two posts.  I responded to the other one before seeing this one.  If it was a 24 hour holter than that is the amount you likely had for that 24 hour period.  Though I wouldn't say 1000 is normal.  Do you feel them a lot?  I had a bout of them in Oct probably around 15,000 a day and they made me feel pretty sick having so many.  They say everyone gets pvcs in their life but I don't think most people have 1000 a day.  If they have any it is likely a couple here and there but in my opionion I think doctors are too quick to say everyone has them. Regardless, 1000 isn't a crazy huge amount but I would think they still would be causing you to have a certain amount of symptoms.  In any event, occassional means you are having one offs as opposed to having them in any sort of pattern or in a row.  The isolated pvcs are less of a concern than the ones that come in patterns and the ones that come in a row.  If you are having symptoms that are disrupting your life then you may want to try beta blockers to help aleviate some of the symptoms.    Some EPs will offer to try an ablation to correct the issue but other won't unless they are more than 20,000 in a day because ablations for pvcs are met with mixed results and can create other problems.  In the end, most of us have to learn how to live with them and try to do our best to avoid the triggers, like stress and certain foods.  Check around this forum, there are a lot of posts on the subject.  Take care.