abnormal heartbeat found in stress test

i am a 38 year old male who lives a healthy lifestyle. i went to a pre employment stress test yesterday and the doc found an abnormal heartbeat towards the end of the test, 4 in succession a few different times when my bpm were over 150. i am scheduled for a nuclear test on monday.any idea what he could be looking for? my bloodwork came back normal no blood pressure, potassium or cholestrol problems at all.

[jennyfi1234]

Hi. I am taking a guess, that maybe he found 4 pvcs in a row. I am not an expert, but I have pvcs so I am thinking that may be what he is looking at. If you have 3 or more in a row they check it out to see if they think it is related to an unhealthy heart etc... but there are a lot of people on here that live with that and have healthy hearts. It usually only concerns them if your heart is not structurally ok etc..

[joeyeye]

Thanks Jennyfi1234, They are pvcs. I am just really stressing because he won't clear my physical if there is any blockage. He told me he thought because of my bloodwork and lifestyle and no prior history or symptoms I have over an 80% of passing the thallium test on monday but didn't really tell me what else it could be any ideas?

[jennyfi1234]

Boy, I am not sure to be honest. I think its like standard procedure to investigate galore when someone has runs of pvcs, especially if they dont usually have pvcs. I hope someone on here who knows what that test is will answer you soon. I think I had that test once years ago, but not sure which one is which---I had a thallium stress test which I THINK was to just watch your heart immediately after you exercise, but there was another test they gave me some kind of dye or something to get pictures of my heart and lungs---its all confusing. Hang on, I am sure someone will respond. Good luck with it all!

[joeyeye]

That is the test I am having done monday. The nuclear stress test is what he said where they inject something in to watch my heart during my stress test.

[joeyeye]

does anyone know if this sounds like a type of tachycardia?

[jennyfi1234]

If you had 4 pvcs in a row its ventricular tachycardia. The nuclear stress test is what they do to see how your heart responds after exercise. Weekends are ususally harder to get answers (Fri.-Sun) most people are more busy I think. While you are waiting you can type in ventricular tachycardia OR pvc runs into the search bar on this sight and you will see lots of conversations had about this very thing.

[Mom2four85]

It could be to rule out structural heart disease and to further test for what caused it.  Here's some info in my journal I have or I can post it all (tons of info though)

http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/228899/VTACH---VT-?personal_page_id=861727

Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are one of the most common arrhythmias and can occur in patients with or without heart disease. The prevalence of PVCs varies greatly, with estimates of less than 3% to more than 60% in asymptomatic individuals.

One of the doctors here commented in a post about another person's vt (if that's what they find you have)  http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Heart-Disease/Idiopathic-Ventricular-Tachycardia-Ablation/show/1327314

"Runs of VT that are non-sustained and very slow and very unlikely to cause any serious problems. If your heart function is normal there really isn't any danger from having the VT runs.  

The only thing worth assessing is the number of PVC's in a 24 hour period.  If it's greater than 15% of all the heart beats than there is a small risk of developing a PVC induced cardiomyopathy.  We typically don't ablate PVC's unless they are symptomatic or if they are very numerous (great than 15%).  

The VT isn't ablated unless it's sustained or very symptomatic with episodes of passing out or nearly passing out.  Sometimes it's difficult to induce the VT in the lab but becasue the PVCs typically look like the VT we sometimes go after them."

So it's best to get a  full cardiac workup such as you're doing and let your cardiologist/EP determine if you have any structural damage or problems and then he/she can advise you what your arrhytmia is.

Good luck on the appointment =)

[joeyeye]

thank you. i just wanted to let you know i have experienced no symptoms, fainting ,dizziness, palpitations etc. This was for a pre emloyment stress test and the doc found something towards the end. I may not ever known I had these pvcs. He stated that he couldn't clear me until I had a nuclear to rule out things. I had my appt. yesterday and my nuc. on monday and I am really stressed out I can't even remember what all he said.