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(Circulation. 2004;109:2374-2375.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Focused Perspective

Exercise-Induced Premature Ventricular Beats

Should We Do Anything Differently?

Kimberly A. Selzman, MD; Leonard S. Gettes, MD

From the Division of Cardiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Correspondence to Dr Leonard S. Gettes, Division of Cardiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bioinformatics No. 7075, 130 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7075. E-mail lgettes@med.unc.edu

Key Words: Focused Perspectives • exercise • arrhythmia • epidemiology

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Exercise testing has typically been used to diagnose myocardial ischemia and to risk stratify patients with known coronary disease. The interpretation of stress testing has rested largely on the development of ST-segment changes and the presence of anginal symptoms.¹ Stress tests have also been used to help categorize and treat various cardiac arrhythmias.²

Single ventricular premature beats (VPBs) that occur at rest or during exercise are a cause of anxiety for patients and their physicians. However, the implications of exercise-induced VPBs are unclear. The prevalence and clinical significance of VPBs during and after exercise have been investigated for many years.^3,4 Most of the studies have focused on the predictive value of exercise-induced VPBs in patients referred for diagnostic exercise testing.^5–9 Of these, 3 studies^7–9 showed no correlation between any exercise-induced VPBs and all-cause mortality over a follow-up period of 3 to 5 years. One study showed an association between frequent VPBs and mortality, but only after 8 years,⁶ and another large study determined that frequent VPBs occurring after exercise might be more predictive of mortality than VPBs occurring during exercise.⁵

See p 2417

Over the last several years, 4 studies, including that by Morshedi-Meibodi et al in the present issue of Circulation,^10–13 have been conducted in asymptomatic subjects with no evidence of cardiovascular disease. Busby et al¹⁰ followed 1160 men and women ranging from 21 to 96 years of age from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging for a mean of 5.6 years. Cardiac events and all-cause mortality were . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Clinical Correlates and Prognostic Significance of Exercise-Induced Ventricular Premature Beats in the Community: The Framingham Heart Study

Ali Morshedi-Meibodi, Jane C. Evans, Daniel Levy, Martin G. Larson, and Ramachandran S. Vasan
Circulation 2004 109: 2417-2422. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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