1. What is a premature beat?
Premature beats refer to the early beats of the ectopic pacemaker of the heart. It is because of the early beat that there will be a compensatory pause after that, and the heartbeat will continue after ‘waiting’, so often feel the heart often ‘stops’. This may happen occasionally or frequently.
2. Is the premature beat serious? Are all premature beats treated?
Uncertain.
3. What is the purpose of treating premature beats?
1). Relieve the patient’s symptoms and improve the quality of life.
Some patients with premature beats have serious discomfort, chest tightness, palpitations, and insomnia, which affect their normal life. Such premature beats need treatment.
2). Prevent sudden death and protect the lives of patients.
Some patients have poor cardiac function, enlarged heart, and premature beats appear in pairs or series. These premature beats may induce cardiac arrest and cause accidents to the patient. These premature beats require treatment.
In addition, if there are few premature beats, the symptoms are mild, and the benign premature beats are harmless, no treatment is required.
4. How are premature beats diagnosed?
The diagnosis of premature beats must rely on the electrocardiogram.
If you feel an irregular heartbeat and suspect a premature beat, you must go to the hospital for a routine ECG. However, the ECG is real-time, that is, it looks at your heartbeat in the current minute. Some people just didn’t have a premature beat at the time, and that might not be caught.
A 24-hour dynamic electrocardiogram (Holter) is also a good examination method. The electrodes are attached to the chest, a small instrument, hung on the body, and the situation of each heartbeat within 24 hours is tracked. It does not require hospitalization and does not affect Life. Not only can you identify what kind of premature beats, but you can also see how many premature beats there are in 24 hours.
5. Is premature beats life-threatening?
Most people with premature beats do not have structural heart disease and are usually not life-threatening. If the number is not particularly large, no special treatment is required. If the symptoms such as palpitations are severe, the main thing is to control the symptoms.
However, there is one kind of person that should be paid great attention to premature ventricular contractions combined with structural heart disease.
6. Do you need lifelong medication for premature beats?
Unnecessary.
If the symptoms of premature beats are obvious and the patients are at high risk of heart disease, premature beats require lifelong medication, and of course, specialists will provide an evaluation. If the degree of risk is not high and the symptoms have improved, the premature beat can be stopped, the medicine can be taken again when symptoms are present, and the method of intermittent medication can be used to control it.
7. Can premature beats be treated with intervention?
Premature ventricular contractions can also be treated using radiofrequency ablation. Generally speaking, when the number of premature ventricular contractions in 24 hours exceeds more than 10% of the total heart rate, after active drug treatment is ineffective or cannot be stopped, and patients with severe premature ventricular contractions, radiofrequency ablation can be considered.
8. Premature beat recovery instructions
Most premature beats are closely related to life and mood, so it is necessary to develop a good habit of going to bed early and getting up early. At the same time, we must learn to control our emotions, not to be great sadness and great joy, nor to be anxious.
Patients with premature beats can usually do normal exercise when they are asymptomatic, including running, climbing, swimming, and playing ball. However, when the premature beat is obvious, it should be stopped immediately.
Be careful to avoid eating foods with irritating ingredients, such as coffee and strong tea; try not to eat spicy and salty foods, and also avoid raw, cold, indigestible, or greasy foods.
