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Comment
. 2023 Feb 16;25(2):517-525.
doi: 10.1093/europace/euac184.

Prognostic implication of premature ventricular contractions in patients without structural heart disease

Raffaele Scorza  1 , Martin Jonsson  2 , Leif Friberg  1 , Mårten Rosenqvist  1 , Viveka Frykman  1
Affiliations
Comment

Prognostic implication of premature ventricular contractions in patients without structural heart disease

Raffaele Scorza et al. Europace. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Aims: Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are a common form of arrhythmia associated with an unfavourable prognosis in patients with structural heart disease. However, the prognostic significance in absence of heart disease is debated. With this study, we aim to investigate whether subjects with PVC, without structural heart disease, have a worse prognosis than the general population.

Methods and results: Patients evaluated for PVC at a secondary care centre in Stockholm County from January 2010 to December 2016 were identified. We included patients without history of previous heart disease who had undergone echocardiography and exercise test with normal findings. Based on sex and age, we matched the PVC cohort to a four times bigger control group from the general population and compared the outcome in terms of mortality and cardiovascular morbidity during a median follow-up time of 5.2 years. We included 820 patients and 3,264 controls. Based on a non-inferiority analysis, the PVC group did not have a higher mortality than the control group (0.44, CI 0.27-0.72). Sensitivity analysis with propensity score matching confirmed this result.

Conclusions: PVC patients, who after thorough evaluation showed no signs of structural heart disease, did not have a worse prognosis when compared to an age- and sex- control group based on the general population.

Keywords: Arrhythmia; Complex; Contractions; Premature; Ventricular.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: RS and MJ have no conflict of interest to declare. LF has received consultancy fees from Bayer and Sanofi. MR has received consultancy fees from Pfizer, Roche, Zenicor, Medtronic and Janssen. VF has received consultancy fees from Medtronic.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Graphical summary of the inclusion and selection process .
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan–Meier plot for survival probability in PVC and control groups.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Hazard ratio for overall mortality in the PVC group compared to control group according to different conditioning models. The dotted line corresponds to the non-inferiority limit (HR = 2.0).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Survival probability according to PVC-burden in 670 patients in which data about number of PVCs/day were available.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Kaplan–Meier plot for probability of receiving a cardiovascular diagnosis in PVC and control groups.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Sub-distribution hazard ratio (fine-grey) for cardiovascular morbidity in the PVC group compared to control group according to different conditioning models.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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