risk of sudden cardiac death

[Rob2008]

Hi - I am looking for some clarification to the other post I made last week.  I will keep this post brief and to the point.   I experience extra beats,  sometimes several per day, but sometimes I go weeks without any and I don't know why this is.     These are annoying,   but the concern to me comes when I feel like I have a suddenly increased pulse along with continuous extra beats,  associated with lightheadedness and dizziness and these episodes always tend to last 10-20 seconds and come maybe once every month or 2.    I had on a 30 day monitor but this didn't happen when I was wearing it.

So to clarify,  I have a normal stress echo,  normal coronary CTA with calcium 0,  sed rate 0, other labs normal.  

My question:    Generally speaking,  with the normal tests listed above,  what risk of cardiac death is associated with these short episodes of continuous extra beats,  dizziness and lightheadedness?

[worriedmom08335]

A related discussion, PVC's , Exercise, and sudden death was started.

[Rob2008]

Thanks to everyone for the replies..  I do not know if they are PVC's or PAC's, I was just told extra beats.   I wonder if I could get my records and find out.

My concern again lies in the fact that sometimes I have a short run of constant extra beats for 10-20 seconds where my pulse increases and I usually get very lightheaded.

I guess it is comforting to know that I don't need an EP study or ICD at my risk level,  so long as I can tolerate the infrequent nature of the symptoms.

[erijon]

Is this my old friend only with a profile finally? I hope so and if so I appreciate your candor. I hope you get the answers you need, soundslike a difficult situation. Let me know if it's you, I'll be happy to help!

Jon

[tickertock]

I must add that while I think the Cardio is being honest with you statistically speaking and justified accordingly,it still leaves a little dark area for anyone with pvcs", then again life in itself is an everyday risk.

[tickertock]

you see this is exactly why a PVC diagnosis is so confusing, I thought a,  normal ecg , lab, echo pvcs were considered just as benign as pacs,sames different cardios have different opinions, makes one wonder though, as a person with PVCs and  a documented episode of nsvt over 20 years ago it makes revist my "slightly"increased risks with little more than a "grain of salt".

[Rob2008]

in other words, I can live with my symptoms,   but my concern is knowing my likelihood of sudden cardiac death.   Does it sound like I'm having Vtach?

[Cleveland Clinic]

You didn't tell me what you EKG showed.  If it is normal or shows premature atrial contractions, not premature ventricular contractions, the risk of sudden cardiac death is very low, probably similar to the general population's risk.  If premature ventricular contractions are present on your EKG then the risk is slightly higher but not high enough to warrant any further therapy other than maybe a beta blocker.  I can't give you an exact number because there are no studies that have really looked into this prospectively.