A while ago I mentioned a study I had read about which concluded that there was no physical health risk to people who had lots of pvc's. (I am assuming they had had them checked out and they were told they were benign). This is a quote from a post I read today which explains the study a bit more:


"Basically they followed a bunch of people for seven years who had very frequent PVCs. The average number of PVCs on holter monitoring was 566 PER HOUR, 60% of them had couplets and 26% of them had v tach. Despite all this the survival rate was the same as that of average population and there was no risk of death as a result of very frequent PVCs -

Long-term follow-up of asymptomatic healthy subjects with frequent and complex ventricular ectopy.

From 1973 to 1983 we followed 73 asymptomatic healthy subjects who were discovered to have frequent and complex ventricular ectopy. Ventricular ectopy in these subjects was measured by 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiography, which showed a mean frequency of 566 ventricular ectopic beats per hour (range, 78 to 1994), with multiform ventricular ectopic beats in 63 per cent, ventricular couplets in 60 per cent, and ventricular tachycardia in 26 per cent.

Asymptomatic healthy status was confirmed by extensive noninvasive cardiologic examination, although cardiac catheterization of a subsample of subjects disclosed serious coronary artery disease in 19 per cent. Follow-up for 3.0 to 9.5 years (mean, 6.5) was accomplished in 70 subjects (96 per cent) and documented one sudden death and one death from cancer. Calculation of a standardized mortality ratio (Monson's U.S. data, 8th revision) for 448 person-years of follow-up indicated that 7.4 deaths were expected, whereas 2 occurred (standardized mortality ratio, 27; P less than 0.05). A comparison of survival of the study cohort with that of persons without coronary artery disease or with mild disease, patients with moderate disease, and men with unrecognized myocardial infarction showed a favorable prognosis for the study cohort over 10 years.

We conclude that the long-term prognosis in asymptomatic healthy subjects with frequent and complex ventricular ectopy is similar to that of the healthy U.S. population and suggests no increased risk of death. "


I have been having a bad time with my ectopics recently, feeling them a lot more - but this helps to put my mind at rest. Some of this test group were having thousands of pvc's a day - plus ventricular tachycardia (fast heart rate) - and yet it concludes that they had no greater risk of death than anyone else.

So, once you've been checked out and told your heart is okay, then it really is - however unpleasant the pvc's are, they are not doing you any harm, even in the long term. Now I just have to get that deep into my brain and I am sorted.   I hope this helps. Best wishes.

Yes thanks Saab I am going through pretty rough time with them at the moment and my main concern is that I have had them for so much of my life I worry it can damage my heart. I have had it checked out but the feeling is still there and reading something like this helps.