What is Premature Ventricular Contraction (PVCs)?
This is one of the most common forms of arrhythmias. It is due to the premature discharge of an electrical impulse in the ventricle, causing a premature contraction. Therefore, it is named “premature ventricular contraction,” or PVC. A PVC is premature because the it occurs earlier than the next regular beat should have occurred. What are symptoms of PVCs? Most often, patients with PVCs complain of palpitation. However, rather than reporting sustained racing heartbeat, they usually describe “missing” or “skipping” of the heartbeat. Some patients even feel that the heart has “stopped” while others describe a sensation of “flip-flop.” This is due to the fact that the PVC comes too early (prematurely) in the cardiac cycle to have resulted in an effective pulse or heartbeat. Therefore, no heartbeat is felt until the next regularly-timed heartbeat occurs after a pause (so-called compensatory pause). Incidentally, the beat after the PVC usually occurs with stronger contraction than usual and
