• Ventricular premature complexes can be preceded by a sinus P- but this is not conducted.
  • The diagnosis can never be made with full certainty from the surface ECG- it may be a supraventricular beat.
  • Pauses-
  1. Compensatory- usual.
  2. Non-compensatory- if retrograde conduction.
  3. No pause- interpolated.
  4. Postponed compensatory- first degree block in next beat causes complete heart block in the next.
  • Ventricular premature complexes may be narrow if-
  1. Arising high in the IVS
  2. Fusion of two ventricular premature complexes or one ventricular premature complex and a supraventricular aberrant beat.
  • Frequent ventricular premature complexes can cause heart failure!
  • Tea, coffee or alcohol may be the cause of ventricular premature complexes.
  • The ventricular premature complex may have a first heart sound, without a second heart sound.
  • The electrolyte imbalance which causes ventricular premature complexes is hypokalemia.
  • The drug of choice to acutely suppress ventricular premature complexes is lignocaine. If it does not work, try procainamide and then propranolol or magnesium
  • Ventricular premature complexes are more in males.