nsvt

[nicnam]

Healthy 36 year old female. Jog about 20 miles per week. About 12 years ago, in my mid 20's, I was preparing for a surgery on my leg and the doctor asked if I had palps. I said yes (not very often, though). I wore a Holter monitor and it picked up an 18 beat run of non-sustained v-tach. I was subjected to numerous tests (echo, mri, stress, etc). An EP reviewed the results and told me everything was wonderful and that he didn't even need to see me again unless something serious happened. That was a huge relief. A few years later, I was about to have a surgery for fibroids and I was living in a different state. I thought it might be a good idea to check in with a cardiologist before surgery. The doctor reviewed my recorded, said everything was fine, but said that I should cut out caffeine. He also wanted me to check in with him regularly. Cutting out caffeine made my already infrequent palps nearly disappear altogether (I will have a handful a year -- and typically tied to my cycle). All these years later, and I'm just now questioning something. I have taken immense relief in the fact that nsvt in a structurally normal heart is typically ok, but what happens if you later acquire a structural problem? I mean, if the nsvt wasn't the result of the structural issue (because no structural problem existed at the onset of nsvt), then is one all of sudden in the scary category of nsvt with structural heart damage (or does the scary part require the damage to be the cause of the nsvt)? Also, has anyone had a similar response to that of my first doc. I actually prefer the EP's--don't worry about it unless something serious happens--to the somewhat stressful yearly visits.

[nicnam]

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts! I am trying not to be too stressed about it. :)

[Bromley]

A few things have changed in the past few years, as far as VT ablation goes. Depending on what you have, and the affect it has on you, some of these things can be ablated with high success rate and reasonable risk. If the  symptoms get bad, the nsvt starts lasting longer, or you develop new symptoms, especially any dizziness or chest pain, I would check in as well. Otherwise, it the check up went well, consider yourself lucky, and dont worry...

[MichelleP_3811]

I think the medical community is becoming less and less concerned about nsvt in a healthy heart.  This said, I think that your EP was saying if something serious happens like a heart attack then maybe the situation would need to be watched more closely.  This said, there is no saying you will ever have a heart attack if you maintain a healthy heart lifestyle which it sounds like you do.  Also cutting out the caffeine may have been the trigger so try to not worry. But if you do have a heart attack as with anyone who has one regardless if they ever had an ectopic beat then you will need to be monitored more closely.  But the bottom line is you need not worry at this point so try to put any future concerns out of your mind.  If it is stressing you out more than necessary then I may even broach the fact with your current doctor that you do not get many palps anymore and are yearly visits necessary.  My EP had the same response as yours, unless something major starts to happen go live my life.  It sounds like your current doctor is a bit more cautious but I would suspect most eps would respond the way yours did. The last thing you want to do is to start to stress about any of this.  I will actually start to cause you symptoms you have already gotten a handle on.  So try not to fret.  You will very likely die from something unrelated to the heart.  But we will all die from something.  Odds are you are a long long way away from that.  Stay strong.

[Bromley]

Correction.  The statement applies to pvcs .  I do not know to what extent nsvt is correlated with scd.  I assume it depends precisely on what you have.

[Bromley]

I think it's just a statistics thing.  People with nsvt and structurally normal hearts are known to have an increased chance of scd, but it is very low.  That's all.  The statement provides no information for people that are not in this class.

Until recently,  My ep and I just agreed that I should check in once in a while. Don't go too long,  or they lose track of your situation.  

More recently,  I have conflicting stress test results,  and I have agreed to call him if I experience symptoms. In other words we are monitoring, and exploiting the fact that I exercise regularly,  which makes detection easier.