• Question: What are premature ventricular contractions?

    Asked by Charlio to Cristina, Gemma, Praveen on 19 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Cristina Villa del Campo

      Cristina Villa del Campo answered on 19 Nov 2015:

      Hi Charlio!

      Thanks for your question! The way our heart works it’s very efficient. We have a pacemaker that makes sure the heart beats properly, the atria need to contract first to make the blood flow to the ventricles and then the ventricles contract to get the blood out through the arteries. If you have premature ventricular contractions the ventricles contract when they feel like it and not obeying the internal pacemaker. Apparently many people have them from time to time without any symptoms but they can be more frequent when you have had a heart disease, like a heart attack.

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