Understanding Premature beats: Causes, Symptoms, and Management

What is it?

Premature beats is an arrhythmia in which the heart beat occurs earlier than expected, interfering with the heart's normal rhythm. Prematures beats can either be from a loci in the ventricles (PVC) or the atria (PAC). When someone has premature beats, it feels like a "thump" in the chest. But this sensation is actually from the normal beat that follows the premature one, because more blood is being pushed from the heart. Usually, premature beats are not a symptom of heart disease but some heart conditions may cause premature beats such as cardiomyopathy and coronary heart disease. Benign causes may include stress, fatigue, exercise, nicotine or caffeine consumption.

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Additional names

This group contains additional names:
- Ectopic beats
- Extrasytoles
- Premature ventricular contractions
- PVCs
- Supraventricular Premature Beats
- Atrial premature beats
- Premature atrial contraction

Signs & symptoms

People may have different sensations in their chest such as fluttering, pounding, jumping and skipped beats.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis of premature beats is based upon ECG, holter monitor that records the heart activity for 24-48 hours, event recorder that operates when the patient presses the button, and an exercise stress ECG.

Treatment

Treatment may include lifestyle changes such as reducing caffeine or tobacco consumption. Medications such as beta blockers, calcium channel blockers and anti- arrhythmic medications. If these don’t help, another option is radiofrequency catheter ablation.

☝️ This is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult with your physician before making any medical decision.

Learn more about our editorial process for content accuracy.

Source of Information - We analyze big data of more than 23 million patients de-identified medical records from the following sources:

National Institution of Health ∙ World Health Organization ∙ University of Illinois hospital