Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs) ECG Review

A premature ventricular contraction occurs when a focus in the ventricle generates an action potential before the next scheduled sinoatrial nodal action potential.

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There are four main characteristics of premature ventricular contractions:

1. Premature, occurring earlier than expected if measured against previous R-R intervals.
2. Ectopic, originating outside of the SA node, and thus the QRS morphology would be different from the normal morphology when the action potential travels through the normal conduction system.
3. Wide complexes; because they come from the ventricles and do not use the normal ventricular conduction system, action potentials need to travel from myocyte to myocyte, which is much slower, creating a wide QRS complex. Unlike premature atrial contractions, or PACs, usually narrow-complexed because they use the normal ventricular conduction system (unless a baseline right or left bundle branch block is present).
4. Compensatory pause following the contraction; the extra action potential causes the SA node to become refractory to generating its next scheduled beat, and thus it must “skip a beat” and will resume exactly two P-P intervals after the last normal sinus beat.

Ventricular bigeminy occurs when every other beat is a PVC.

No treatment is necessary for PVCs. If symptomatic, beta-blockers or antiarrhythmic drugs can be effective. Rarely, ablation of PVCs is needed.

ECG Examples:

• Premature Ventricular Contraction (PVC) ECG (Example 1)
• Premature Ventricular Contraction (PVC) ECG (Example 2)
• Premature Ventricular Contraction (PVC) ECG (Example 3)
• Ventricular Bigeminy ECG (Example 1)
• Ventricular Bigeminy ECG (Example 2)
• Ventricular Bigeminy ECG (Example 3)
• Ventricular Trigeminy ECG (Example 1)
• Ventricular Trigeminy ECG (Example 2)
• Ventricular Trigeminy ECG (Example 3)

References:
1. Chou’s Electrocardiography in Clinical Practice: Adult and Pediatric, 6e
2. Surawicz B, et al. AHA/ACCF/HRS Recommendations for the Standardization and Interpretation of the Electrocardiogram. Circulation. 2009; doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.108.191095.