My son has Premature Atrial Bigeminy / Contractions

My son has Premature Atrial Bigeminy / Contractions.  He sees a cardiologist about every 6 months or every 12 months.  His blood pressure is high.  He is 20 years old.  He has had this since birth.  Can the PAC cause high blood pressure?  From what I read on here -- it isn't serious -- so why does the Cardiologist want to see him so frequently?  I think his BP is high because he is nervous about the whole process and worried about what the Dr. will find.  

[itdood]

If he's in complete bigeminy it can be concerning. Bigeminy means that the PACs fire every other beat.  That's a high load of PACs.  That would mean about 50% of the heart beats are PACs.    docs get concerned at anything > 15% or so.

If he's in total bigeminy all the time that would mean about 50,000 PACs per day.  the 15% rule means anything over 6,000 or so.

[itdood]

p.s., I've not heard of PACs causing high blood pressure.  I have heard that high blood pressure can lead to cardiac muscle changes that can cause PACs though.

[chuckhura]

Thanks for the reply.  Yes, when he is at the Dr. office, it is every other beat.  But, I know he is really stressed when he goes there.  So, I don't know if the stress is making it worse.  He is going to wear a monitor (again) on Monday for a 24 hour test.  I asked the Dr. if we could just do the surgery to eliminate the extra beat, and he said he thought it wasn't needed at this point, but the cost of going to the Dr. every 6 or 12 month for the rest of your life, along with ECGs is fairly expensive.  If the surgery is low risk, why not just do it?