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25 yr old male, left side chest pain, left arm pain, left jaw pain on and off for like 3 years now. heart palpitations and pvc’s. had echo, stress echo,stress test, cardiac MRI, ekg’s, event monitors, holter monitors, ct scan of chest, and cardiac ct-calcium scoring. all normal besides on event monitor caught PVC’s, and some runs of ventricular tachycardia. 27 beats of v-tach, at a rate of 127 bpm. what does this mean? how reliable are the tests that i’ve had at catching blockages or anything that could cause the v-tach runs, and the “angina” pains that i feel? is the cardiac MRI that i had with contrast agents good at detecting coronary artery disease? why do i have these pvc’s, v-tach, and “angina” pain? thanks”
A:
All the test you have had show that your heart is healthy w/o evidence of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD). Your cardiac CT-Calcium proved that. Most patients with your kind of extra heart beats are quite safe and only need reassurance they are OK. A rare type of patient my have what is called variant angina caused by spasm of the coronary arteries. It is usually associated with older patients than you, who often smoke as well and have pre-existing CAD.
You can read more here:
However, there are some things you can do to lessen the frequency of these PVCs. They include avoiding caffeine, nicotine and other toxins.
Please check these links for more information about palpitations and PVCs:
http://www.cardiac-risk-assessment.com/ca-blog/palpitations/
http://www.cardiac-risk-assessment.com/ca-blog/palpitations-and-pvcs/
http://www.cardiac-risk-assessment.com/ca-blog/i-am-worried-about-v-tach-ventric
http://www.cardiac-risk-assessment.com/ca-blog/what-are-some-of-the-causes-of-pr
About CAD & spasm:
http://www.cardiac-risk-assessment.com/heart-information/coronary-artery-disease
Your story doesn’t sound at all like that!
Hope this helps,
Dr T
http://www.cardiac-risk-assessment.com/