Hello everyone
Is there anybody on here who has had an ablation specifically for Ventricular Tachycardia ? And was the ablation the first option ?
Ive been diagnosed with none sustained VT I’m currently taking 20mg of Bisoprolol but they are miking me feel very lethargic
I’m thinking of going down the ablation route because I’m still getting long episodes of PVCs.
Never had an ablation. I’m also on a beta blocker. Keeps my pulse 40-50s. So tired. But I’d rather take a med than think about an ablation. Maybe they can try diltiazem/calcium channel blocker in addition to bisoprolol. Maybe reduce dose of bisoprolol and add CCB. Some docs try both and even other arrhythmia drugs before thinking about ablation. Have you ever had a monitor? Do they know what’s causing your VTach?
Hi yes I had a monitor fitted last year that’s what picked up the VT but strangely enough I was surprised when the reading came back because I didn’t feel it. I’ve had all the tests done mri/angiogram/ct scan / pet scan / stress test and echo cardio gram all came back clear. I want to get off the meds they are poison not take any more. you can’t mix ccb with beta blockers they both work in different ways. I did originally start off on verapamil which didn’t help me at all they was prescribed by my doctor but according to my cardiologist verapamil is not the right medicine for VT it’s used sometimes for svt. I personally know 3 ppl who have all had ablutions 2 of them was for vt and the other was for svt and all 3 was a success.
You can mix the two. It actually is better at preventing VT moreso than one alone. See paper below. Ablations don’t always work and meds aren’t poison. They are meant to help control things so you don’t have to have an invasive procedure. Although ablation has worked for others, it is usually suggested to exhaust all medical therapies before choosing an invasive one that does come with risks and is irreversible.
Mine was for AVNRT
Hi m8 AVNRT is A type of super ventricular tachycardia where the problems is with the upper part of the heart totally different to VT. VT is the lower chambers.
Hi ,
I was diagnosed with NSVT .
My cardiologist increased the dose of bisoprolol to 10 mg .
My NSVT was not controlled with bisoprolol completely.
I did the ablation and it worked for me 100% successfully so far .
The procedure was done 3 months ago and I have a follow up appointment in May. Mine was in bad area but it worked well.
I was really scared of heart failure if my v-tach is not controlled properly. So I accepted the ablation very quickly and it worked for me.
Talk to a good EP not a general cardiologist.
If the ablation gets done by expert person it is 80% of times bring complete cure.
Much better than having heart failure in time
Thank you
I’m now on 20mg of Bisoprolol now I started on 2.5 last year and every time I’ve been back to see my cardiologist he’s increased the dosage to the max. I should of gone to see my cardiologist last week to discuss an ablation but my appygit cancelled due to cov-19. I’m that desperate now I tried to pay private but even the private sector are not taking anyone on they have quoted me £15k for EP study including the ablation. I’m in the uk West Yorkshire. Where did you have your procedure done ? And what was the cause of your VT ?
Kind regards Lee
Hi again,
I live in Canada . I did my ablation in St. Michael hospital in Toronto.
I am 38 years old female and I am a pharmacist. Actually I did my education in UK
If you are thinking about private sector , then think about other countries like US and Canada as well.
My V-tach was idiopathic . Are you getting visited by EP? Did you talk to him about the side effect of your drugs or about the chance of developing heart failure in long term.
An expert EP will weigh all these things and can give you a good advice.
If you want some body in UK to discuss these things go to Dr. Schilling .
I preferred to go to academic centre and to Prof of university to discuss my case. So I did not hesitate when they recommended me what to do.
I can very well tell you where to go in Canada as I am living here and I did search for myself .
But have a good discussion with an expert EP before choosing what to do.
Do not forget you have the option of other countries if you wish to go for private sectors.
Hi thanks again for your kind response
I haven’t seen an EP yet I last had a consultation with my cardiologist 3 months ago thats when he increased my Bisoprolol to 20mg from 15mg but there is no change in how I feel. I should of seen him again last week but it got cancelled due to Cov-19 situation.
My cardiologist did mention if the increase in Bisoprolol doesn’t work we can add a calcium channel blocker to take alongside the beta blocker he also mentioned that another option is a med called Amiodarone which usually works well for VT. I have done lots of research on Amiodarone and that med scares me more than the ablation procedure so no way on earth would I take that.
It’s all happened so quickly I’m 47 year old male never had any medical conditions at all until 12 months ago I started with these horrible palpatations which got worse and seemed to last longer sometimes making me feel light headed which is very scary.
I’m really in a no win situation at present I can’t even pay to go private in the uk due to all the private consultants now helping in the NHS hospitals.
Have you gotten Gene tested for a mutated titan Gene? Only speak to a EP a cardiologist does not know anything but plumbing my ablation was very intense because I have been trick Euler tachycardia events I went to Vanderbilt University in Nashville and saw Dr. William J Stevenson Google him he’s the best in the world for ablation therapy
I had a ablation for PVC in 2018 at Cleveland clinic. I highly recommend it if you want to get off the meds.
Hi there!
I actually had a VT ablation in the beginning of December. (RVOT- VT) is what my official diagnosis was.
I dealt with this for a number of years
I am a 34 (35 in a couple weeks!) Year old female.
about 5 years ago I first noticed the VT when I was climbing a mountain pass in Chile. I hike and am very active...also very aware to my body. I noticed it, but it went away and my rhythm went back to normal.
When I returned home I went to a cardiologist who put me on a 48 hour halter monitor and detected nothing. I hiked steep mountains trying to provoke it, but nothing.
So I chalked it up to " I had this checked out- I will move on"
Over the next few years the VT would come very randomly, but always exercise induced.
Many doctors told me I was healthy and no worries.. Finally in 2018 Every time I got my heart rate up I would go into VT. I saw several different cardiologists and eventually EP's who narrowed it down. They were able to capture the VT on stress tests.
I have had every other scan and test to show my heart, valves and all the plumbing, structurally is in great shape. I was on Flecainide for a little over a year. I was told I had CPVT which was polymorphic and ablation wouldn't work.
The flecainide suppressed the VT but I still suffered a lot from PVC's. I couldn't exercise much as the Flecainide made me dizzy and I still had lots of PVC's when working out. Last summer I got a second opinion from another EP. He tried me on Verapamil, but I found out very quickly that did not work to supress my VT.
I asked about ablation. He said it would work for me, because unlike the first EP that said I had CPVT, this feller thought I had RVOT-VT. Which basically meant, my arrhythmia wasn't polymorphic. I wanted ablation so I could get off medication. I consider myself to be young and don't want to be on meds my entire life. Also, flecainide has some nasty side effects, and is proven to be unsafe during every stage of pregnancy.
Even though I wanted to try ablation- I was very nervous! The procedure went smooth (I was awake for it, they gave me a lot of adrenaline to provoke my VT. They were only able to provoke the PVC's but they believe that is the source of my VT, so they ablated them)
Anyhow. My recovery has been a bit all over. The first week I had NO PVC's and felt great. After about a week I started getting PVCs again. I wasn't on any medication at this time. My nurse suggested the ablation didn't work if I was having PVC's. This was of course, upsetting. I also developed pericarditis (inflammation around the sac around my heart) When I went to my follow up appointment my EP said it could still take a couple months for my heart to settle down and wasn't disappointed by my PVC's I did a stress test on the treadmill and while I had some PVC's I didn't have any VT! I took my stress test 6 weeks after my ablation which was quite early.
It has now been 5 months since my ablation. the last 5 weeks or so my PVCs have really quieted down. I have began exercising again and have produced no episodes of VT! I am very satisfied but also apprehensive to being too excite as I have heard it can come back. For now, I am thrilled to be medication free and VT free and able to exercise again!
Sorry for the lengthy story. I just wanted to give you all the details because when I was searching for information I found it to be lacking in my condition. I hope you can get in for an ablation sooner than later. While the doctors suggested PVC's were harmless, I found them to be very uncomfortable, unsettling and exhausting.
Hi
thank you so much for spending time sharing your story
Like you I’ve had all the tests done mri / ct / pet scan / echocardiogram/ angiogram / stress test and all came back clear it was the halter monitor that picked up a run of VT it picked up a 16 beat run of broad complex tachycardia which went at a rate of 194 bpm which I couldn’t believe when I got the results back because I didn’t even recall feeling anything the whole 7 days of having the monitor on. They said the most likely diagnosis is RVOT-VT like yourself but they are not 100 % sure.
I was originally put on verapamil but that did nothing I was still getting PVCs
so they changed me to Bisoprolol started me off on a low dose 2.5mg about 9 months ago
I’m now on the maximum dose of 20mg and I’m still getting absolutely inundated with PVCs
which sometimes I can get 4 in a row which make me feel light headed which is very scary.
My cardiologist says everyone gets PVCs some people are more sensitive than others
but he’s not the one getting them. It’s very strange because for the last 2 months for some reason I get them when I’m in the car I can feel them coming on I have a watch that records my bpm and it goes between 130 - 140 bpm which is far too high just for the sake of driving the car it must be something to do with the motion of the car.
I was speaking to a lady on here she had idiopathic fibrosis RVOT-VT
her ablation was a success.
Once again thank you so much for your time and good luck going forward no more VT or PVCs for you 🙂
Hi,I read your reply here.
What struck me was that they first thought you had VT and then they thought CPVT and then again RVOT-VT, so they can be wrong about it then.
I ask because my cardiologist found a few weeks ago when I was doing my bike exercise test, that I got a period of PVT, so ofcourse he was worried, because I only had already problems in the past with AT, bit that has been successfully solved with a hybrid ablation in 2019.
He also told me he had never seen anything like this, even though my echocardiogram was ok, just a minor pvc at that moment.
He now has planned an mri and EP exam in February.
I am really scared now because he also spoke about an ICD, but I really hope I can be helped with an ablation, but he told me that if it’s polymorphic it will be no option to ablate, because it would be too difficult.
So after reading your reply here, I can hope that perhaps they find something else when doing the EP exam and mri?
Thanks in advance for your reply.
99% of the population gets PVCs at some time in life. They are premature ventricular contractions some people feel them and some don’t. They don’t put you a ICD in just because somebody is getting PVCs. ICD are put in when someone is having sustained runs of VT or have previously had Ventricular Fibrillation. I have VT normal heart my LVEF is 55% and my RVEF is 61 % confirmed with an MRI and echocardiogram. I’ve also had an angiogram which also came back clear no calcium build up. I still don’t fully understand what your diagnosis is for you to be considered having an ICD implanted ?
Hi, I know about the PVC and I know I will always stay vulnerable to them for the rest of my life, it was just a question to wyo19 that perhaps they can be wrong and that the initial diagnosis is not always right...I had that 2 years ago when they initially diagnosed me with AVNRT and after a thorough EP mapping they saw that is was AT. This arrhythmia was taken care of with an ablation, so that is not the problem anymore.
So ofcourse I hope that the initial arrhythmia that he found now on the chart during my bike test, that it is something less invasive or perhaps different than initially thought. I guess there are many sorts of VT and yes he saw polymorphic VT, that’s why he want’s to do the mri and EP exam although my echocardiogram was OK. He found it also a very strange pattern, so strange that he consulted his colleagues about it. And yes he talked about an eventual ICD implant, but ofcourse that is not sure until he knows more, but I think I am searching for some experiences here and thoughts of other people so I can open my mind to less frightening possibilities than are going on my mind for now, because I really am frightened and my head is spinning with anxiety, not good for the heart ofcourse.
Fingers crossed for you. I did initially speak to my cardiologist and he said that VT ablation as a 90% success rate. It’s usually more difficult to map though. I have 2 friends that have already had ablations one for VT and the other friend for SVT . Both have been a success and ectopic free for 10 years I just hope I’m has 🍀 lucky
Hi there Avma,I am sorry for my delayed response. I hope this note finds you well. To be clear, when you say PVT, is that Polymorphic VT? Or did you mean PVC? Or is it something else? and AT, is that Atrial Tacchy?
and yes, it took a while to come to an accurate diagnosis for me. And sounds like you are having a unique circumstance like I did. It took several different Dr's to to come to this conclusion. One was a general cardiologist, but 2 were electrophysiologists with different opinions. Where do you live? If your cardiologist thinks it is polymorphic, I think it is worth a second opinion. I was very surprised that I had EP's with differing opinions. The one who gave me an ablation was very certain it didn't look polymorphic. So it was certainly a rollercoaster of emotions. Try not to put too much thought into what he is saying now, knowing they are always learning new things and a different perspective saved my life. I had talk of an ICD too and it never happened.
I just passed my one year anniversary of my ablation and so far so good! I am hesitant to call it a success because I am very apprehensive that it could return. But I have been hiking and really getting my heart rate up and have been so grateful not to experience VT, and I am on no medication! Very happy.
I am actually due to get the Covid Vaccine and I am concerned about how it may effect my heart, if it could provoke my arrhythmia.
Good luck with your MRI next month, and please do keep me in the loop as I would like to hear how it goes and what they conclude.
In the meantime I cannot say enough about self care. Get all the sleep you need, drink plenty of water and keep your stress down. Self care was so important in my well being during the time that I was waiting to figure out what was going on with my heart. It is difficult to put it out of your mind, but try to.
Hi,Yes with PVT I mean poly vt and with at atrial tachycardia.
I live in Belgium.
My EP will do the further exam because he isn’t sure what was going on, on first sight it looked as a PVT. I’ve seen his report on it from my bike test and it is written that I had a run of 25 beats of PVC’s that were very irregular and very fast and that they came from the chamber of the heart. He also wrote in his report that I had singular and a few couplet PVC’s also. So I don’t know what to make of that, was I having PVT then or just PVC’s that were irregular and fast. Or isn’t there any difference between the 2?
He also wrote in his report that he wants to check further if they could still come from the ventrical or perhaps from the atria. He put two interrogation marks after this remark, so this and
the result of my holter of a week, it seems that in this week I had only a few supra ventricular etopics and NO ventriculair etopics.
But ofcourse this doesn’t say anything, but it gives me a bit of hope that perhaps it isn’t as bad than it first sounded. But of course I will have to wait and like you say, I have to try not to be too anxious or think too much about what will be.
In the meantime, Since I had this run at his office, my heart feels more sensitive and I have more etopics. Really strange...
I heard yesterday about somebody who had 2 ablations for PVT, it was a specialist in The Netherlands who did this. So this means it can be done and there are already specialists who do it. Also this gives me a bit of hope, so I will certainly tell my EP about it, because if it would comes to that, I really have to make the right decision, I will not get and ICD like that in my body, but I guess they will not do this randomly, I would think that this is the last thing they do if really necessary...
I think that for the vaccin, I would surely get it, I think it is not as bad as to get Covid and I think I read somewhere that you can have it without provoking the arrhythmia...
Yes, I really have to take my mind of it, because it only makes it worse, but this is not easy.
I am also very anxious to get out the door alone, I always think that I can drop dead like this, so when I try to get out on my own, I really start hyperventilating and feeling lightheaded...
Not good.
are your bouts of PVT/PVC/SVT provoked when active? It is really good news that he didn't see Ventricular ectopics in the holter. As far as PVT / PVC couplets... I believe they are different, my understanding is that Couplets of PVC's can escalate to VT. That is the way mine turned out anyhow.
My PVC's and VT increased in prevalence over years. At first it was only on occasion when I would trek that I would get VT. in 2018, everytime I elevated my HR I went into VT. So perhaps your heart is getting more familiar with that path and that is another reason you are seeing more of it since leaving the Dr office. I also believe that stress can really encourage PVCs, so of course, that is our conundrum all too often!
As far as leaving the house, try to rationalize yourself, PVC's won't cause you to drop dead, as uncomfortable and unsettling as they may be. I live in the states and work in the Backcountry, many many hours from civilization and before I knew how dangerous my VT was, I was experiencing it often, alone and far far from help. Not to say that is a good thing- but because I had a strong heart, I would have runs of VT but they would subside and I never experienced cardiac arrest. I don't know if you would find it helpful, but I am not opposed to sharing any of my Dr. notes or screenshots of my VT runs, specifically the ones that had debate of being polymorphic. Let me know.
That is very good news to hear that PVT has been treated! I think more and more is always being learned about these rhythm disorders. I understand that you would not want an ICD, except for a very last resort. It sounds like your EP agrees!
I hope you can maintain calmness - long deep breaths are very helpful!! When I was awaiting diagnosis this forum really helped me. Knowing I wasn't alone. It is very lonely to feel like you are the only one who experiences this, and others do not quite understand. So, know that you are not alone.
cheers, deep breaths and fresh air.
I know Svt is different (I had AVNRT) but I was on 2.5 mg of Bisoprolol and didn’t like the way it made me so tired. I had an ablation 6 months ago and been good ever since, no meds or anything.
I’m really pleased you are doing well 👍
Hi again,
You mentioned you never got visited by electrophysiologist. If I were in your position I would definitely discuss my case with EP (Electrophysiologist).
In UK you can easily get visited privately by specialist and when it come to procedure use NHS.
You can go based on advice from your cardiologist for now but try to change him in the first possible time that you can.
Prof Mark Oneil works in
The Harley Street Clinic 88 Harley Street London W1G 7HR
TEL: 020 7636 6363 FAX: 020 7631 1306
you can contact this centre and have a consultation with him . He is a famous electrophysiologist in UK based on St Thomas hospital.
He can guid you and let you know what you need to do.
I believe your general cardiologist should have referred you sooner than this.
Hi again
Do you mean for me to pay private for the electrophysiologist then go through the NHS for the actual ablation procedure ?
Hi thank you again
I will be discussing your case when I eventually get back to see my cardiologist
and in the meantime I will be making enquires about paying private for the EP Study. I’ll let you know how I get on 🙂
I’ve had two ablation‘s for sustained ventricular tachycardia two times my heart rate went up to 240 bpm I actually flew to Nashville Tennessee and saw Dr. William Stevenson (he’s the best in the world for ablation therapy) haven’t had any episodes in three years but I am on Nadalol which is a channel and a beta blocker and my heart rate is always high 40s low 50s that’s on a 20 mg tablet cut in half. So that would be about 10 mg sometimes I take a quarter of a tablet I rarely get palpitations I try to pay attention if I give them to me but I also have a mutated titan Gene which causes fibrosis of the heart so the long-term outlook for me is not good most of my siblings died in their early 50s I’m 62 so I’m grateful my dad died at 57 my brothers six years younger than me has had heart failure for almost 10 years his son my 24-year-old nephew had a stroke and can’t move the right side of his body so other than having a stent put in in 2012 I’ve only had two tachycardia events and then I had to go to the ablation thing but I heard people talking on this venue about flying after they had an ablation I flew the next day (and my heart stopped twice during the ablation) now I’m wondering how good that was for me to fly the day after my ablation anyway I think ablation therapy is good if you get the right doctor. I went to a study hospital in Nashville at Vanderbilt University Google Dr. William J Stevenson
Catheter ablation or not?
Unsuccessful Ablation
catheter ablation success
Ablation for ectopics 
