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Supraventricular Ectopics! HELP!

Hello everyone! im new here so bare with me! lol


For the past 7+ months i have been dealing from what i have come to find out were isolated supraventricular ectopic beats. These started very randomly. I would get one really noticeable one every few weeks. then one noticeable one every few days. This has gone on and on and on causing a great deal of anxiety amongst other "feelings"

To get to my diagnosis i had an ECHO done. Also wore a Holter Monitor. the SVE's were rare less than 1% the ECHO said i had very mild LVH. (so the SVE's are from the upper chambers, LVH is the lower, < docs said its not related.)

Anyways my question is. How long until these SVE's go away? They are really noticeable and cause a great deal of anxiety. When they happen sometimes i feel my body get warm. i feel them in my throat and my bodys natural response is to let out a little cough to "set things right" They also kind of put me in a funk, meaning like i think about them alot and wonder if things are ok.

Should i be worried? will these every go away? iv tried several different remedies but i just want to get rid of them for good. OR at least not feel them as strong as they are.

thank you all so much.
3 Responses
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20748650 tn?1521032211
COMMUNITY LEADER
I’ll get on this later tonight!
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1 Comments
Ok, Great! Thanks!
20748650 tn?1521032211
COMMUNITY LEADER
Hey, sorry I took so long!

I was researching your case a bit more! It’s interesting because of your cough, which is likely a vagal response to the ectopy!

It’s hard to say when they will go away on their own! I think these are a unique case given how noticeable they are and how symptomatic you are. Thankfully, this doesn’t make them any more dangerous.

I would say however that you might benefit from an additional visit to wear a longer term 2 week or 1 month monitor as opposed to a 24 hour or a 48 hour, just to be certain that they’re not missing a more sustained superventricular tacharrhythmia.

I think your doctor would be interested in knowing that a cough “sets things right”. Because this brings up a key question; are the PACs causing the cough or is there another arrhythmia that’s being terminated by the cough.
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3 Comments
Hey thanks for the long detailed responses!!! I did tell my doctor that it makes me cough a little. It’s weird because it’s not your typical cough, it’s more of my bodies reaction to something (the ectopic) in my throat. i should have tried to be more specific in explaining myself about this sensation. it’s like a small small cough/clearing my throat feeling that happens. Very hard to explain. Its really noticeable when they happen though. Now this doesn’t happen every day. Sometimes multiple times, sometimes once every two or three days. It just gets me worried. Iv never had anything happen to me like this. Again thank you!
I wouldn’t worry too much. It’s not necessarily an indicator of any big problems.

It’s just.. interesting.

I don’t think you’re just like.. imagining it or thinking too hard about it.

Your cough and your heart concerns most certainly could be linked. This makes absolute 100% sense scientifically.

I’ve read about coughing like this in arrhythmias on several occasions in text books and such but I can’t pin down a precise “section” in such a book relevant to your situation specifically that mentions coughing. Sadly it’s not a “smoking gun” for anything. It’s just related.

I dug into literature about it and it’s been discussed/described but not very extensively. It’s just not a phenomenon that anyone seems to have been particularly keen on understanding. We just know that it occurs.
Canon A waves, Baroreceptors and the Vagus nerve. Somewhere in the combination of these google search terms likely lies the explanation for the mechanism behind the coughing if you’re interested in digging around too.
20748650 tn?1521032211
COMMUNITY LEADER
As for your key questions, the summary is:

1. Will they go away on their own?

No one can really predict that, sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. There’s many causes of superventricular ectopy but one of the more common sources (potentially implicated here) is related to the nervous system. Unfortunately not much can be done. At 1% burden most medications would do more harm than good.

Some patients are able to identify triggers and successfully get rid of ectopy at home. However, literally every persons trigger is going to be different. There really is no “smoking gun” that can work with everyone. Therefore there is really no guarantee whatever remedies you find will work.

I’ve had patients triggered by cold weather, dust, menstral cycles, daylight savings time sleep disturbances, food preservatives, bacterial infections, dehydration etc etc. No kidding, you name it, it can potentially trigger ectopy. Finding a trigger is like finding a 4 leaf clover, you just gotta be lucky in all honesty.

2. Should you be worried?

No, everyone gets ectopics. There are certain situations in which ectopics can be a “clue” that something else is going on but in and of themselves they tend to be pretty benign.

The more important question is WILL you be worried? The answer here is probably yes! Unfortunately you don’t have much control over the anxiety that comes with having a palpitation.

You can go back and request longer monitoring on the basis that the palpitations affiliation with your cough makes you anxious that there may be something missing. Most of the time a provider will oblige if it puts your mind at ease.

However nothing they find, even in this scenario, is likely to be particularly “dangerous”. It just may open up additional treatment options for you if this is uncovered.

Apart from this you can also seek behavioral health services which can perhaps assist in calming you down or give you a medication which can help you get through the day if your symptoms are PARTICULARLY bad.

This isn’t available to everyone with insurance companies and such limiting folks financially. However if feasible I recommend pretty much every heart patient at least have 1 session with that department to determine if there’s anything they can do to assist in a multidisciplinary fashion.

There’s also dieticians which can help identify food triggers (if any) and generally advise for a heart healthy diet in many cases.
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