This is the Medscape Medical Minute. I'm Dr. George Lundberg.
Do exercise-associated premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) in adults mean anything? Six authors from Stanford reported a logistic regression evaluation and propensity score-adjusted Cox survival analysis of 1847 heart failure-free patients who underwent clinical treadmill testing over a recent 7-year period in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2008.[1] Forty-six percent developed exercise PVCs and 34% developed recovery PVCs. Exercise PVCs correlated with tachycardia; recovery PVCs correlated with several indicators of coronary artery heart disease. Nine percent of patients studied died over 5 years. Recovery PVCs, but not exercise PVCs, were associated with an almost doubled propensity-adjusted mortality rate. Yes, PVCs do matter, if they occur during the recovery phase after exercise.
This Medscape Medical Minute is selected from Medscape Best Evidence.[2] I'm Dr. George Lundberg.
Footnotes
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References
- 1.Dewey FE, Kapoor JR, Williams RS, et al. Ventricular arrhythmias during clinical treadmill testing and prognosis. Arch Intern Med. 2008;168:225–234. doi: 10.1001/archinte.168.2.225. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Medscape Public Health & Prevention. Internal Medicine: Medscape Best Evidence. Powered by McMaster Plus. Available at: http://www.medscape.com/pages/features/newsletters/bestevidence/internalmed Accessed April 10, 2008.