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Basics

DESCRIPTION navigator

Pregnancy Considerations navigator

EPIDEMIOLOGY navigator

APCs increase with aging; in the elderly, APCs are ubiquitous.

RISK FACTORS navigator

Structural heart disease with abnormalities of atrial structure or physiology, such as infiltrative diseases (amyloid), RV or LV failure, mitral or tricuspid insufficiency, following cardiac surgery, pericarditis

ETIOLOGY navigator


Outline

Diagnosis

Signs and symptoms:

DIAGNOSTIC TESTS & INTERPRETATION navigator

Lab navigator

DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS navigator


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Medication (Drugs)

First Line navigator

Second Line navigator

In highly symptomatic patients not responding to previously described medical therapy, antiarrhythmic drugs (class 1C if no structural heart disease, or class 3) can be tried, either alone or in combination with #x03B2-blockers.


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Treatment

ADDITIONAL TREATMENT

General Measures navigator

Usually no treatment is indicated or required.

SURGERY navigator

In selected patients, electrophysiologic mapping and catheter ablation of the PAC focus is possible.

IN-PATIENT CONSIDERATIONS

Admission Criteria navigator

Not applicable; patients are typically not admitted for APCs.


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Ongoing Care

FOLLOW-UP RECOMMENDATIONS

Patient Monitoring navigator

PATIENT EDUCATION navigator

PROGNOSIS navigator

Normal; occasionally APCs may be a harbinger to atrial fibrillation, and may trigger reentrant supraventricular tachycardias.


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Miscellaneous

CODES

ICD9

427.61 Supraventricular premature beats

SNOMED

287057009 atrial premature complex (disorder)

Reference(s)

ADDITIONAL READING

SEE ALSO

Author(s)

Peter Ott