My husband as I wrote a while ago had many PVC's.He has been taking cardizem for slightly high bp and his doc upped his dose because of the pvc's to 240 mg. The PVC's seemed to be less but they are now back again. We know that a beta blocker is the best drug to take but bacause he has asthma and most recently Lung cancer(now in remmision)non smoker) the doctor said no to a beta blocker.He has since told my husband he might be able to try Toprol Xl but to keep his inhalers close by.To me that option is laughable but maybe I am wrong. He has had every test for any heart problems and is told he has a very heathy heart.Any Ideas?

Hi Lorriem, tough one. It is best (if possible) to avoid betablockers in asthmatic patients as there is a high risk of bringing on attacks. In any case, it is no longer the case that betablockers are the drug of choice for lowering blood pressure. Calcium channel blockers (eg Cardizem) are considered better options at present. I'm living in the UK and am amazed how hung up alot of you's guys are about PVCs! In the absence of significant heart disease and unless the PVCs are very frequent and causing problems, we tend to ignore them as they are relatively harmless. Treatment with drugs can be more detrimental than beneficial.

Quote from eamon1:

Hi Lorriem, tough one. It is best (if possible) to avoid betablockers in asthmatic patients as there is a high risk of bringing on attacks. In any case, it is no longer the case that betablockers are the drug of choice for lowering blood pressure. Calcium channel blockers (eg Cardizem) are considered better options at present. I'm living in the UK and am amazed how hung up alot of you's guys are about PVCs! In the absence of significant heart disease and unless the PVCs are very frequent and causing problems, we tend to ignore them as they are relatively harmless. Treatment with drugs can be more detrimental than beneficial.

He would not worry if there was only a few PVC's but when he had the monitar on if I can remember a few months back he had over 2000 pvcs in 24 hours even his cardio doc was amazed.We think this is related to the Chemo and surgery that he had last year.Don't know for sure. I have been taking beta blockers for over 25 years for a rapid heart rate and I think they are great . I did switch to a calicum blocker 15 years ago but had to go back to the beta blocker. Also the Cardizem swells his ankles very fast infact last night he went back to the lower dose of cardisem for that reason.

Hello!
Has your husband seen an Electrophysiologist? They are trained to deal with electrical problems of the heart, and there are some great ones at UCLA and Cedars Sinai in California... Usually people with PVC patterns like you are talking about have only one extra foci, and they are usually in a predictable area and relatively easy to ablate. Meanwhile, Cardizem is the only thing that has ever even partially worked for me, and we've tried EVERYTHING. (I have scads of extra focii in all 4 quadrants of my heart and for some strange reason the doc thinks they are growing back after we ablate them. The muscle is failing, my ejection fraction is way down, and one of my valves regurgitates. Seems I am a "different" case.) He's lucky that the rest of his heart is in good health. Has your husband lost consciousness? Dizzy spells? Pain? If it's only the PVC's then it's probably not worth worrying about... But check with the Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist first. Even 2000 PVC's on a monitor isn't a huge deal (we have 90,000 beats a day) unless they are in a pattern. (A little over 2%) Especially when the body is under stress--getting sick, being sick, etc... this can trigger the PVC's. It's what his everyday (normal day, not post chemo) patterns are that matter. Even 10 in a minute aren't that big of a deal if it's only for a minute...
Good luck,
Kristin