Does ablation also stop PAC’s and PVC’s

[nbpa1234]

Hello,

I am having an ablation for afib at the end of January. Does anyone know I this will help with my PAC’s and PVC’s as well?

[Jong1945]

Hi, nbpa,

My guess is "somewhat".

AF is usually triggered by ectopic foci (often in the pulmonary veins but not only - see Haissaguerre's seminal work at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?te.... PACs may or may not originate from pulmonary vein sites and may or may not initiate a bout of AF. PVCs are ectopic foci in the ventricles and I don't think they can propagate back up to the atria and kick off AF, but you will obviously feel them as ectopics.

PVI ablation will stop the PV atrial foci from initiating AF (or PACs from those sites), but any other atrial ectopic foci may or may not occur during the procedure, may or may not be found during the procedure (law of cussedness), may or may not be suitable for ablation (if they keep moving, they are generally unsuitable - if they are "unifocal" - i.e. always in the same location, they can be zapped) and therefore may or may not ablated vs. remain present.

I think PVCs won't be touched by AF ablation - although... the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is intimately tied up with AF and ectopics and some ablations do have a suppressive effect on some ANS aspects of the heart, in which case some PVCs might be suppressed too.

In my case, I have had my PVs all isolated and an extra line in the atrium, a flutter ablation, but I have from time to time been bothered by ectopics. I have found (for me) that calcium channel blockers (diltiazem and amlodipine) made these worse and that attending to and quietening my gastric troubles very much reduces my ectopics to a non-bothersome level. Check Dr Sanjay Gupta's videos on Youtube for more info.

HTH

[BobD Volunteer]

If you search ectopics top right you will see that many people even with successful ablations for AF still get them. Since ectopics are normal in all people they are not considered problematic by the medical fraternity even though we AFers are so aware of our hearts and such things..

[Hidden]

PAC,s and PVC’s in the absense of structural damage of the heart, are considered harmless. Their origen is different than AF and therefore not ameanable to ablation. Wish that the AF will go away with the ablation, forget about the premature contractions because they won’t hurt you. Environmental stress, anxiety, fear, etc intensify premature contractions. Consider a change in life style.

[Polski]

A number of people have said that taking magnesium has decreased their ectopic burden. Research on here (box at top right of screen) for information about taking magnesium.