Bigeminy HR confusion. 31 bpm or 62 bpm?

[chicolini]

Hi all, l wonder if anyone can explain if a PVC is actually a beat to be counted in the bpm total. My husband was experiencing palpitations tonight, which is not unusual for him. His fitbit said 62 bpm. Taking his pulse manually l recorded 31 bpm, counting for the whole minute. I counted the prominent beats but not the faint barely discernible beats in-between. We then did a kardia recording which said 31 bpm.

My question is which is the true bpm measurement? 31 or 62? And is the strong pulse or the faint pulse the true heartbeat, or was l (and kardia) counting pvcs not proper beats? Thanks for reading.

[Prada47]

Hello I can't answer your question but what I do know is if you are experiencing ectopic beats it is very difficult to obtain an accurate BPM either by hand or by electronic means.

I was told that by a very experienced Nurse Practitioner who was having difficulty getting an accurate HR when I was experiencing a run of ectopic beats.

When I was experiencing bradycardia HR 33 BPM Cardiologist reduced Bisoprolol from 10mg to 7.5 now average BPM 46

Reagards

[chicolini in reply to Prada47]

Thanks very much Prada, that's good to know. Husband has been on 2.5mg bisoprolol for a year, he was put on it to manage his pvc burden which was high. He had no other heart issues and no high bp. But it hasn't really helped and last Tuesday the gp told him to halve the dose so he did, and as of today is taking 1/4 dose. There is a referral to the specialist so will have to wait for that. I'm sure the brady is caused by the bisoprolol as he didn't have it previously. Is yours??

[chicolini]

Thanks very much for your reply. I think the brady is caused by the 2.5mg bisoprolol he has been on to control the pvcs. The gp has now reduced the dose to half.So yes the pvcs came first. A week of holter monitoring a year ago showed a high burden of pvcs and as he was symptomatic and also at risk of heart failure they wanted to reduce the pvcs. I'm not sure what they will do now, as he also has recently developed swollen feet and a positive blood test for heart failure 😦. And i think the heart failure is related to the medication he has had to take for several years for an autoimmune condition. Cardiac appointment in mid April, so a big of a wait.