EP study for v-tach, and left side chest pain

[cookienkikin]

can everyone please share their experiences of an EP study with me. I know I have posted on here before about similar questions, here is a little reminder of my situation.I'm a 24 yr old male. Echo, stress test, stress echo, holter, and event monitors have all been normal besides "PVC's and a 26 beat run of ventricular tachycardia at 127bpms that self terminated

1.could an EP study and ablation make my v-tach worse or cause it to become dangerous later on in life? 2.Also how safe are EP studies? 3.Is ablation safe? 4.Whats the mortality rates for this procedure? 5.Should I get the EP study done or can this be benign? 6.Whats the chances of V-Fib and SCD during EP study and ablation? 7.How bad is it to have a 26 beat run of v-tach??

I also have came across some information about "Idiopathic Ventricular Fibrillation", and "Primary Ventricular Fibrillation" where it has occured in people with normal hearts, structural and electrical, with normal echos, holters, stress test, ep studies, cardiac mri's, so my question is how can one say that PVC's, and NSVT are benign in NORMAL hearts but they still have these cases of sudden death "v-fib" in people with NORMAL hearts???

[orion5180]

take your heart out and do something are u nuts taking a heart out of where???? your chest like taking a engine out of a car????   common  

[Bromley]

In general, each heart condition is different is terms of its suitability for ablation, risks if ablation is attempted, and potential for complications.

Ablation for V-tach is not straight forward. However, there can be benefits from the EP study, such as understanding to what extent your VT is a problem.  You need a doctor to help you understand the benefits and risks.

You haven't indicated what type of VT you have.  Some are more serious than others. Some of the more serious are related to genetic issues. If you have a serious issue, it is better to find out what it is and get some type of treatment for it (medication or an implant) than to find out in the ER. Alternately you may be relieved to get a clean bill of health, saving yourself lots of wasted time worrying about it.

One thing.  I dont think I would worry about this rythmn disorder during the EP study. This is the safeest setting to find out about heart rythmns. You have your EP doctor right there ready for anything!!  Most of the risk is in the ablation, not EP. Highest risk is stroke.  ~ 2%.  Also, possibility of ablation not working the way you want. VT ablation has a fair rate of not being successful.

You need to decide on what to approve if you go through this.  You could for instance approve an EP study, but no VT ablation.  You could approve an implant, or have the doc pull out and study it before approving an implant, if that is what he thinks is needed.

[is_something_wrong]

Hello,

I have never been to an EP study, so I don't have any experience to share. Anyway, I see you are not feeling well, and it's a bit sad to see you suffer as much as you do.

First: Please try to erase the word "V-fib" from your mind. I know it is the ultimate scary arrhythmia, but it just doesn't happen unless your heart is seriously damaged.

I found an article for you, I trust you've read so much (and too much) cardiology, so you understand the terminology there:

http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/453

I repeat: Your heart is completely healthy after your tests. You had a short run of non-sustained VT, or borderline to accelerated idioventricular rhythm, or wide complex supraventricular tachycardia (not easy to say on an event monitor - and if you have an intraventricular conduction delay, it's actually an OK chance to be supraventricular, presenting with wide complexes!)

SCD with no heart disease just does not happen!! I'm sure there are registrered some cases worldwide, but you'll have to stop worrying!

Do the EP study and if they find something, they ablate it and it's gone! But you'll have to promise yourself something. If the test actually is OK, you'll HAVE TO STOP WORRYING ABOUT YOUR HEART! If you don't stop after that, you'll have to ask your doctors to take your heart out and examine it, or something :) You don't want that.