Experiences With Skipped Beats (PVC) and Atrial Fib (AFIB)?

[Conan]

Somebody near to me, male age 69, low blood pressure, slow resting pulse, non-smoker, 175 pounds, started feeling a little funny and noticed his pulse was often skipping beats when he was just sitting around, usually after eating.

Then, now that he was paying closer attention to heart and pulse, he also noticed brief spells of fast, irregular heartbeats apparently when he'd done too much outdoor work in the hot sun.

He saw his regular doctor, who referred him to a cardiologist. Both assured him that the skipped beats--actually premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are 100% harmless.

The fast, irregular beats they told him are atrial fibrillation (AFIB). They had him take a stress test and a heart ultrasound (echocardiogram), both of which he passed. The cardiologist told him AFIB is not any kind of heart attack but the flopping around that happens in the top of the heart creates a risk of blood clot and stroke. They had him start taking a full-size aspirin a day, and said that when he turns 75 or if the AFIB becomes prolonged he'll have to start taking blood thinners as a further precaution against stroke.

He's used to being a healthy guy, so he's finding this all quite upsetting.

How worried should he be?

 

[raygo123]

No very, my dad had the same thing for years, when I say years, he lived to be 96.

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[Passepartout]

My mom had afib, had a stroke at (early 80's) was paralyzed on one side, lived her life out in assisted living until docs had difficulty regulating her blood thinners (Coumadin/Warfarin) and she stroked again which ultimately took her life.

Truly, people can live a long time with afib, and blood thinners have come a long way in the ensuing 30some years, but the patient is well advised to follow the advice of their cardiologist.

Afib is not a death sentence, but it isn't 'business as usual' either.

Jim

 

[BJRSanDiego]

To my knowledge, PVCs are generally harmless unless two things occur: (1) the percentage of missed beats becomes so large that the person suffers from the reduced blood flow/oxygenation or (2) the person gets groups of two, three of four consecutive missing beats. I was told that the doubles and triplets can cause AFIB or VFIB (potentially dangerous).

There are pills that can be taken to reduce PVCs - - like Tenormin or Atenolol. They are cheap and have been on the market for a long time. One minor side effect is that they reduce a person's blood pressure and heart rate a bit. So if the person is very active physically (like a runner or tennis player, etc.) their heart rate may not get high enough (e.g., won't get over 120 bpm) for them to get enough oxygenation and that will cause them to get out of breath more quickly.

I know very little about AFIB or VFIB.

 

[SmithOp]

I started having random rapid heart rate events about a year ago, and bp was not being controlled as well by my normal meds. This past Jan I went in to AFib, pulse was 160, called 911 and spent 3 days in the hospital. It had all the symptoms of a heart attack at the time, chest pains radiating down my arm, shortness of breath, felt like my chest was in a vice. I had all the tests done and found nothing, no clots, no blockages, diagnosis was AFib.

I'm in constant AFib now, I take blood thinner, beta blocker, and just started arrhythmia meds. I'm going in next month for a procedure to stop my heart and reboot it, to hopefully get back in sinus rhythm.

My advice is to take it seriously and follow his cardiologist advice.


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