New found issues with PACs

[Tiffw28]

Has anyone ever had extreme pacs out of the blue? I have an implantable loop recorder so I was able to catch a lot of what was doing on. They told me they saw frequent PACS and there were a few episodes that were so long my EPs office thought for a moment I had afib- two episodes that lasted for SIX minutes each that’s how close together these PACs were! This has been happening on and off for two days. In the past cardiac wise I have been diagnosed with SVT, non sustained VTach (ventricular tachycardia- which is not the same as SVT *people seem to get these confused often) as well as atrial tachycardia, inappropriate sinus tach and POTS. I do tend to get PVCs and PACs. My PACs have never been in terribly long runs. I have never had an episode of AFib either.

What concerned me is the out of the blue nature of this. It hit me out of no where. and I have never experienced anything like it. I was so concerned because my heart was so out of sorts and I was so terrified I went to the ER. Where they put me on the monitors for a few hours. But as we know most ER visits are useless! My heart was all over the place. I had frequent PACs, I had a few Pvc pairs, a small run (3 beats) of NSVT, irregular heartbeat, multiform PVCs, a multifocial PVC as well tachycardia. My rhythms for the most part stayed either sinus or sv rhythm except a few times unknown origins came up or it alerted irregular heartbeat. Everything regarding my blood work was normal except my TSH level was at 12.9 which is hypothyroidism. I have never had an abnormal TSH but for years I have had antibodies and been diagnosed hashimotos disease. The endocrinologist swears that hypothyroid doesn’t cause arrhythmias especially what I’m dealing with while my EP disagrees. Has anyone else ever experienced this or something similar? My EP told me they have no idea why this is happening all of a sudden but we are monitoring it. In addition to my loop recorder they put a 24 hour holter on to see what’s up.

I honestly can’t believe how terrifying long runs of PACs can be and it’s hard to know when it happens if it’s the PACs or if it could be PVCs! Both feel similar. Hearts shouldn’t beat out of sync and when they do you have no idea how much trouble you could be in. Emotionally this is taking a toll.

[matty309]

Hi,

I have svt but i also get a couple days at a time of awful pacs/pvcs. Like nearly every other beat is an ectopic. My cardiologist doesn't really know why but he said I'd your bodies sensitive certain things can trigger them off. When I get them I might get 10,000 in a day for s couple days . Then the next day....GONE . I might get 2 the whole day. This has only happened to me 3-4 times in my life bit it does happen and I remember them. It's really weird and is quite scary

[Unreal2015]

Hey!

I think I have had a nearly identical experience to you regarding the PACs. I also suffer from SVT and POTS as well as experiencing PVCs and PACs regularly.

One evening a few months ago I started feeling the weirdest sensation, like loads of ectopic beats in a row - my pulse in my wrist felt very strange! This would go on for countless beats in a row and I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath when it happened. My housemate called an ambulance and they caught runs of PACs so decided to take me in to A&E. I was kept in overnight and put on a monitor which recorded multiple runs of PACs, in bursts, some so long they were like mini episodes of AFib. It went in from about 6pm until 5am in the morning and then just stopped, with no explanation.

I was relieved that they were not runs of PVCs but the sensation was horrible - not being able to tell the difference at the time is also awful.

The doctor discharged me saying to touch base with my EP, saying they had no idea why it had happened with seemingly no explanation. I’ve not had an episode like it since! I take 7.5mg of Bisoprolol daily to try and help with everything but this didn’t seem to touch the PACs, even when they gave me an extra 2.5mg.

I hope you start to get some answers and feel better soon!