Raymond Pranata1, Emir Yonas2, Veresa Chintya3
1Assistant Physician, Siloam General Hospital - Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Pelita Harapan, Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia
2Faculty of Medicine, YARSI University, Jakarta, Indonesia
3General Practitioner, Sanjiwani General Hospital, Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Frequent premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) have theability to cause or contribute to cardiomyopathy and heart failure symptoms in long-term.
Case Illustration: A 46 years old male presented with recurrent palpitations, the latest since 6 hours before admission. PMH of hypertension, diabetes and heart disease were denied. BP: 120/80 mmHg, HR: 138 bpm, RR 22x/minute. ECG: LV focus multifocal PVC bigeminy. Lab: within normal limits. CXR: cardiomegaly. Echocardiography: MR and LVH. The patient was administered diltiazem IV in the ED. Bisoprolol was given during discharge.
Discussion: PVC-induced cardiomyopathy’s mechanisms are not entirely clear; a more likely explanation is abnormal ventricular activation resulting in mechanical dyssynchrony, >10.000 PVCs/day has high risk and this patient’s PVC burden should be calculated. It is a diagnosis of exclusion andmade after exploring possible causes and excluding them.Pharmacotherapy to suppress PVCs includes β-Blockers, CCB, and other antiarrhythmic drugs. Results of the use of β-Blockers and CCB are modest with reported efficacy rates in the 20% range.In patients with PVC-induced cardiomyopathy, successful elimination of PVCs with ablation frequently restores ventricular function acutely and has aprocedural success rate of PVC elimination of 84%. Unfortunately, this patient is not a suitable candidate for catheter ablation. Hence, β-Blockers was chosen for long-term therapy.
Conclusion: Frequent PVCs with high burden has potential to cause adverse cardiovascular events and should be treated to prevent its deleterious consequences. Suppression of PVCs using either antiarrhythmic pharmacological agents or emerging catheter ablation techniques appears to reverse the LV dysfunction.
Keywords: PVC, Cardiomyopathy, burden
