Ventricular Premature Beats: Difference between revisions

VPBs are associated with numerous cardiac diseases (e.g. structural heart disease, ischemia, congenital arrhythmias, pulmonary disease).

However, VPBs are also relatively common in patients without known heart disease. The importance of VPBs for prognosis is controversial. A study by Abdalla et. al <cite>Abdalla</cite> followed 15.637 apparantly healty men aged 35 to 57 years. The prevalence of VPBs was 4.4%. In a subgroup of patients with frequent (2 or more uniform VPCs every 2 minutes) and complex VPBs (multiforms, pairs, runs, R-on-T) the risk of sudden cardiac death was 4.2. In the Framingham study 12% of men and 33% of women without clinically evident coronary heart disease had frequent (>30 VPBs per hour) or complex VPBs. In men, this was associated with a two fold increase of death. However, in another study asymptomatic patients had a good prognosis. <cite>Kennedy</cite> In conclusion sporadic VPBs are relatively benign and frequent and complex VPBs are reason for further examination.

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#Kennedy pmid=2578212

#Abdalla pmid=3673904

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