What are extrasystoles?
Extrasystoles are premature heart contractions, and depending on their origin they can be ventricular or supraventricular. They may be perceived as palpitations, "strange" heartbeats, or a "pounding" of the heart... or they may often go unnoticed.
Production mechanism:
There are cells in the heart that have the property of triggering (caused by various stimuli) cardiac depolarizations automatically, which can be single (isolated extrasystoles) or several (runs). Sometimes they can occur in patients with structural heart diseases such as ischemia and myocardial hypertrophy due to primary damage to the myocytes.
When are they treated?
Treatment is individualized and depends on the conditions and risk factors of each patient. Your cardiologist will prescribe some tests to rule out heart disease and will also measure the density (the percentage of extrasystoles compared to normal beats) during one day.
In patients with a very high density of extrasystoles, who suffer from some structural heart disease or in those in whom these are very symptomatic, it may be necessary to treat them with medication (beta blockers or another antiarrhythmic drug), although in most cases they disappear spontaneously.
Patients with frequent extrasystoles, symptoms such as loss of consciousness or sustained tachycardia should seek medical advice without delay, and perform at least one electrocardiogram to document the episode.
Some triggers: Sustained stress, smoking, caffeine, energy drinks and few hours of sleep are some of the factors that can promote the appearance of this arrhythmia. Therefore, to control it, changes in lifestyle are necessary.
By the doctor Frank Martinez specialist of the UICAR