Premature ventricular contractions in normal children

Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are frequently seen in children with normal cardiac findings. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics and the prognosis of PVCs in children with normal heart. This study included 149 children with PVC who did not have systemic or cardiac disease. Their median age at diagnosis was 10 years (range 1 month to 17 years). Seventy-six children (51%) were symptomatic. Most of the patients had unifocal PVC, whereas 5 (3.1%) of them had multifocal PVCs. The patients were evaluated by repeated Holter recordings and exercise test. In the first Holter monitoring recordings, PVCs were in the form of isolated PVC in 122 (82%) patients, couplet-triplet in 14 (9%) patients and nonsustained ventricular tachycardia in 13 (9%) patients. The exercise test was performed in 105 (70.5%) patients. The frequency of PVCs decreased and disappeared in 65 (61.9%) children, increased in 8 (7.6%), and were unchanged during exercise in 32 (30.5%). There was no difference between the groups according to exercise response regarding PVC quantity. Fifty-two of 149 children (35%) were followed up for a median period of 22 months. After follow-up, PVCs of 25 of the 52 patients (48.1%) decreased and disappeared. We did not find any correlation between the frequency of PVC and treatment, age, gender or the PVC frequency decrease with exercise. In conclusion, PVCs in normal children have benign prognosis and during follow-up a considerable percent show improvement.