PV foci, fasciculations and prognosis

[arthur]

I have been plagued for about two years now with an internal fasciculation (irregular, high frequency ca. 5-10 Hz, low amplitude) located in the middle of the chest, above or behind the heart (it's hard to pinpoint).  This started after an odd viral ear infection, which after clearing up, resulted in a variety of sore throat-like symptoms, palpitations (PAF which was found to be PV focal and since rf ablated), and even a few weeks of odd, sporadic, writhing undulations of the abdominal muscles.  What's left now are some PV foci which cause occassional bouts of atrial premature beats and the ever present internal fasciculation.  These are the facts, and the speculation follows:
I believe (as does my EP) that at least one of the PV foci is being electically amplified in some way through my nervous system so that I can sense its vibration.  However unusual this sounds, there is indeed some precedence for sufferers of PV foci-generated arrhythmias to sense "internal vibrations" that are not skipped beats or ectopy, but rather, stem from concealed PV foci that are not very efficient at disturbing normal heart rhythm.  It may be that a virally-induced lesion resulted in some of the PV foci noise to leak through to some subset of the nervous system running through the same naighborhood.  

So...if all this is true, what's the prognosis?  Does a fasciculation of this type have a chance to "burn out" after time (does the nerve damage get repaired?).  Do magnesium supplements help with fasciculations?  If so, what type and what dose?

Thanks for any insight.

[arthur]

Thanks for the response and effort.  I, too, have conducted extensive medical literature searches and have come up with no cases of PV foci/fasciculation...the problem is that there is no easy way for anyone to research cases based on presentation symptoms.  The best I have done is contact individual researchers who have recently published papers re. PV foci and their treatment...and it was they who admitted to the existence of several similar cases (for which no clear explanation was known).

Does anyone out there know of a medical reference source that actually can be searched by symptoms?  

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-JT]

I did an extensive search of the medical literature and the only thing I could find regarding the presence of fasciculations in relation to cardiac dysrhythmias was pacemaker dislodgements causing twitching of the chest and medications used for the dysrhthymia (specifically verapamil) causing the fasciculation as a side effect. I've never heard of the PV foci-twitching phenomenon you refer to except if it was the actual rhythm change that was being sensed. The only thing that I can recommend is to see a neurologist and have them take a look at the movements of your chest to determine if it was indeed a true fasciculation and to do a formal neuro exam. Also, you may want to review your medications to see if they're causing the symptoms. Good luck.