What causes premature ventricular contractions?
There are many causes of premature ventricular contractions, which include: • heart attack; • high blood pressure; • cardiomyopathy, including congestive heart failure; • disease of heart valves such as mitral valve prolapse; • hypokalemia (low blood levels of potassium), and hypomagnesemia (low blood levels of magnesium), hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia can occur, for example, in patients taking diuretics (water pills); • hypoxia (low amounts of oxygen in the blood), for example, hypoxia occurs with lung diseases such as emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); • medications such as digoxin (Lanoxin), aminophylline (Phyllocontin, Truphylline), tricyclic antidepressants, and ephedrine containing, decongestants; • excessive intake of alcohol; • excess caffeine intake; • stimulant drug use such as cocaine, and amphetamines; • myocarditis (heart muscle inflammation) and cardiac contusion (heart muscle injury), and • premature ventricular contractions also occur in healthy
