NSVT Risks in Patients with Normal Heart

[MLouiseC]

Similar to some of the other patients on here, I too had NSVT on a holter monitor.  My heart is structurally normal and in great shape, as I have been worked up several times due to my anxiety.

All doctors use language like "prognosis for these patients is GENERALLY good" or "this poses MINIMAL significance".  

I can't really wrap my head around this.  Have there been any studies done to show statistically how much our risk of Sudden Cardiac Death increases due to these runs of NSVT? How much higher than that of a normal person who never presented with NSVT?

I'm just not sure how to proceed knowing that there is even a slight risk!

Thank you

[TheGoodNamesAreTaken]

Trust me, doctors want more than anything to be able to tell you there is a zero chance of something going wrong, because that's usually your chance. Unfortunately, they can't say that because if by some strange occurrence you decide to go out and drink yourself stupid and smoke until your lungs are nothing more than a charred piece of coal and basically murder your heart until something goes wrong, they could get in trouble for it because technically, the diagnosis would be because of the NSVT and not because of the drugs. They'd have to say NSVT turned into something worse when your heart was healthy because it was healthy, just the rest of you wasn't. It's like if someone with heart failure ran a 300 mile marathon without stopping and died, they'd have to say "Death by heart failure" instead of "death by running way to much when their heart was barely holding on as it was".

It would be like if I were a bird expert. I can't sit here and tell you that there is a 0% chance that a seagull will crash through your roof, land on your computer, and lay three golden eggs while reciting the Lord's Prayer in Latin. There IS a 0% chance, but I can't tell you that because if someone shoved three gold eggs up a seagull's butt and threw him at your house, I'd lose my license as a bird expert because I was "wrong"

[tickertock]

I had a run of NSVT on an 18 hour holter in 1987, I was 22 at the time, I'm now 49, PVCs and NSVT in a normal heart or even a heart with mild insignificant abnormalities poses little or no risks, no greater than the normal population, We all are at some statistical risks, no matter how minute, but to think about it constantly robs one the ability to enjoy a normal carefree life, which can in the long run carry more risks than the NSVT or PVCs.