What is ventricular arrhythmia

[Janith]

Is this something that we with afib have? Anyone know? Thank you!!!

[rosyG]

No it is when the ventricles ( bottom chambers of the heart) are beating irregularly- much more serious than AF which involves the top chambers

[Hidden]

I wonder why you are asking Janith, is it something you think might apply to you? If it’s something your doctor has mentioned then you need to follow it up to make sure you get the care you need.

[Janith in reply to Hidden]

No ... not at all ... l was looking at another afib website and they indicated that this condition was exceedingly dangerous and l wondered if it was apart of our condition. Now l realize that it is not.

[BobD Volunteer]

I think one needs to be careful with terminology . Arrhythmia just means something is not beating correctly and does not define that rhythm. Because atrial fbrillation often transfers many of the beats to the ventricles it could be argued that when you are in AFwith rapid irregular heart beat then you have a ventricle arrhythmia.

BUT that is influemced byt the atrium not initiated by the ventricle.

The really dangerous thing is ventricular fibrillation where the ventricle has no rhythm and just writhes like a bag of worms as this means that there will be no ouput and left untreated the patient would die very quickly unless the heart is shocked back into rhythm either with paddles or an ICD (internal cardiac defibrillator.)

[Janith in reply to BobD]

Thank you! Very clearly stated.

[Ppiman]

No, we generally have atrial arrythmias which are quite common and not overly harmful to the functioning of the heart - or can be treated. Some ventricular arrythmias, such as premature "ectopic" beats or palpitations (PVCs), are, I gather, very common indeed and unless overly regular or sustained are said to be "benign", i.e. normal or harmless. Some rare ventricular arrythmias are medical emergencies, ventricular fibrillation, for example (hence the “defibrillators” in most towns).

Steve

[Loulou2013 in reply to Ppiman]

Hi all. I have recently been diagnosed with PVC’s ectopic beats coming from the ventricular chambers. I have symptoms such as fatigue and breathlessness. Can’t do much really except move about the house and go on slow walks. I thought 6 weeks ago I was having a heart attack and rushed to hospital with suspected blood clot but it was just the ectopic beats. I have a healthy heart physically and am going to have MRI soon. The ectopic are a pain and cardiologist said non life threatening just a nuisance. So hopefully meds will work soon.

[Ppiman in reply to Loulou2013]

Have you checked your heart rate when you have your palpitations? I have a similar sense of tiredness, even exhaustion, but mine comes not from ectopic beats but from a fast heart rate, usually 105-125bpm. I’ve just had it now after doing very little exercise. It takes a while to go down, too.

The “stress MRI” you’re about to have is the “gold standard” cardiac diagnostic tool, I gather, so you’re in luck. I had one two years ago and all was well apart from a small amount of left branch bundle block - what a mouthful.

Why I get this strange fast beat coupled with the tiredness, goodness knows. My cardiologist thinks it might be caused by my having a brief burst of fibrillation first. A recent two-week ZIO test showed several of these.

Steve

[Loulou2013 in reply to Ppiman]

Hi my heart rate is pretty standard at times (80-90bpm) and the ectopics come along in runs every 2 or 3 beats and this causes me to get out of breath or want to lay down. Heart rate is quite low maybe around the 60bpm. I have a naturally high heart rate normally I was told many years ago when I was under doctors for pregnancy and I seem to always have. Thanks for the heads up RE the MRI. That’s very interesting to know. My cardiologist said to me that at 43yrs I’m quite young to have these but sometimes it happens to people and having some treatment and investigation work is good to find out why but sometimes it just is. Our bodies are just crazy at times! What’s a ZIO test? ☺️

[Ppiman in reply to Loulou2013]

It does sound as if it’s the ectopic ventricular beats that are causing the washed-out feeling then. I rarely get runs off them.

The MRI will be really useful to your cardiologist. Let’s hope - as is most likely by far - that it reveals a sound heart with a few conduction issues of no overall consequence.

Steve

[Loulou2013 in reply to Ppiman]

Fingers and toes crossed for a positive outcome for sure. Thank you for your words too. 😊

[KipperJohn]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arr.... Worth checking out the story of former England cricketer James Taylor who was diagnosed with this and had to retire very young - he is fitted fitted with an ICD.

[Finvola]

'Ventricular arrhythmia' can refer to a life-threatening condition such as ventricular fibrillation or to something more benign such as ectopic beats originating in the ventricles, called PVC's.

There is something called NSVT - non-sustained ventricular tachycardia - which is classified as more than 3 consecutive PVC's.

In my early days of AF I panicked when my cardiologist talked about VT and was convinced I was going to die instantly. I wasn't sure enough to ask questions about the 11 beats he was referring to on my monitor (wouldn't have understood the answers probably). I now know they were 11 consecutive PVC's which almost caused me to collapse but I'm still here.

Well done for researching - we need all the info we can get to enable us to cope with the unexpected!

[rvotvtlady]

Hello, I had.same as finvola,non sustained vt. It used to come on for me when exercising and would come and go.whilst I was told it wasn't dangerous. When I went on the exercise stress bike the vt came on for 30 seconds, I could tell the doctor was panicking but I felt ok weirdly. I would like it to running along and someone giving you a sudden fright. I used to feel like the blood was draining down my body. It wasn't a nice experience. However after two.ablatiobs I've not had a reocuurence. However, I take it easy these days! No more pushing trying to get faster !

[Janith]

That’s my problem ... l get very energetic and push my body to the max ... cannot relax ...