Supraventricular Extrasystole - Symptoms And Treatment

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 17:49

Supraventricular extrasystole

Supraventricular extrasystole is one of the variants of cardiac arrhythmias, which is characterized by premature excitation of the parts of the heart located above the bifurcation of the His bundle. Supraventricular extrasystoles include both atrial and antrioventricular (atrioventricular) extrasystoles.

There are the following types of supraventricular extrasystoles, depending on the frequency of their occurrence:

• Rare, no more than five episodes per minute;
• Medium frequency, 6 to 15 episodes per minute;
• Frequent more than 15 episodes per minute.

Also, single, paired, regular and sporadic extrasystoles are distinguished. According to statistics, during encephalography, in 43-63% of cases, supraventricular extrasystoles are found in absolutely healthy people. Rare cardiac arrhythmias are mainly diagnosed. Against the background of organic diseases of the heart and blood vessels, supraventricular extrasystole is found more often, while violations of the average frequency prevail.

The main danger of supraventricular extrasystole is that it is capable of provoking more severe disturbances in the work of the heart, among which: flutter and atrial fibrillation, reciprocal tachycardia, etc. In addition, patients are quite difficult to tolerate such heart rhythm disturbances, namely the subjective symptoms of pathology …

Content:

• Symptoms of supravenricular extrasystole
• Causes of supraventricular extrasystole
• Treatment of supraventricular extrasystole

Symptoms of supravenricular extrasystole

Symptoms of supraventricular extrasystole in some cases are absent altogether, or, on the contrary, are significantly expressed and disrupt the patient's quality of life. In any case, a person will not submit complaints only until a certain point in time.

The clinical picture of cardiac arrhythmias in supraventricular extrasystole is characterized by the following signs:

• The most common complaint of patients is the appearance of a sensation of cardiac arrest. They feel that the work of the main muscle of the body stops, which causes a panic fear of imminent death.
• Patients often have shortness of breath, asthma attacks are possible.
• Due to the reduction in the release of blood, oxygen deprivation of the brain occurs, which leads to frequent dizziness and malaise.
• Sweating intensifies, accompanied by flushes of "heat" to the head.
• People begin to feel interruptions in the work of the heart (beats out of rhythm, jolts, "coups").

Other symptoms are possible, indicating a supraventricular extrasystole, but they will be more related to the reasons that determine its development.

Causes of supraventricular extrasystole

The causes of supraventricular extrasystole are varied, among them the most common are heart diseases:

• The most common cardiopathology leading to the development of extrasystole is ischemic heart disease.
• Almost 95% of patients who have had myocardial infarction are subsequently diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmias, including supraventricular extrasystole.
• Cardiomyopathies: arrhythmogenic, dilatational, hypertrophic and restrictive.
• Inflammatory processes in the heart muscle (myocarditis).
• Heart failure of a chronic course.
• Heart disease (congenital and acquired).

Other causes of supraventricular extrasystole are:

• It is possible that cardiac arrhythmias occur while taking medications. Most often, the development of extrasystole is provoked by therapy with arrhythmic drugs, cardiac glycosides, diuretics. Uncontrolled intake of medications or very long treatment is especially dangerous.
• Electrolyte imbalance (magnesium, sodium, potassium).
• The impact of toxins on the body (smoking, alcohol, drugs).

• Malfunctions of the autonomic nervous system.
• Diseases associated with hormonal disorders (diabetes mellitus, adrenal pathology, thyrotoxicosis).
• Oxygen starvation of the body of a chronic course. This condition is often observed with sleep apnea, chronic bronchitis, anemia.

Sometimes the nature of supraventricular extrasystole remains unclear, in which case they speak of an idiopathic heart rhythm disorder.

Treatment of supraventricular extrasystole

Treatment of supraventricular extrasystole is in the competence of the cardiologist. Only a doctor can decide on the appointment of certain medications. First of all, the need for drug correction is indicated by the presence of symptoms of rhythm disturbances that are felt by the patient, as well as the presence of significant organic lesions of the heart.

If there are no structural cardiac pathologies, and supraventricular extrasystole is asymptomatic, then treatment is not required. A person is given general recommendations regarding a healthy lifestyle. You should also minimize the impact on the body of aggravating factors (stress, consumption of products with caffeine, smoking, etc.). It is equally important to control the level of blood pressure, maintain the electrolyte balance of the body, and adhere to a diet.

Medical treatment of supraventricular extrasystole

Medical correction of supraventricular extrasystole is reduced to taking antiarrhythmic drugs. They all have approximately the same effectiveness, but at the same time they have different side effects and contraindications.

There are 4 classes of antiarrhythmic drugs, including:

• The first class of drugs is sodium channel blockers. They include three subgroups: A (Quinidine, Disopyramide, Procainamide), B (Mexiletine) and C (Flecainide, Propafenone). Class A drugs often cause allergic reactions, class B drugs provoke extracardiac side effects, class C drugs cannot be prescribed to patients with ischemia of the heart and blood vessels.
• The second class of drugs is beta blockers or potassium channel blockers. They are prescribed to patients who have concomitant heart disease. These include Nebilet, Konkor, Anaprilin, etc.
• Drugs of the third class are prescribed only if there are diseases that threaten the patient's life. These are drugs such as Sotalol, Amiodarone, etc.
• The drugs of the fourth class are calcium channel blockers. They are most often prescribed for the prevention of pathologies such as atrial fibrillation, angina pectoris, atrial flutter, etc. They do not have any significant effect on the extrasystole itself.
• The decision on the dosage of the drug, on the timing of its administration, on the choice of a specific drug for treatment is made exclusively by the doctor.

Surgical treatment of supraventricular extrasystole

Radiofrequency ablation of the heart is performed with supraventricular extrasystole if it is not corrected by drug therapy, as well as if there is atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter with possible development of heart failure.

RFA is a minimally invasive surgery performed using an endovascular catheter. As a rule, with supraventricular extrasystole, the success of such a procedure reaches 98%.

As for the prognosis for supraventricular extrasystole, it is most often favorable, especially against the background of the absence of cardiopathologies.

The author of the article: Molchanov Sergey Nikolaevich | Cardiologist

Education: Diploma in "Cardiology" received at the PMGMU. I. M. Sechenov (2015). Here I completed my postgraduate studies and received a diploma "Cardiologist".