Clinical significance of atrial premature beats

pp 17-20

Abstract

In 12,000 consecutive medical records from our private practice, atrial extrasystoles were detected on the electrocardiogram in 222 cases (1.85%), which were divided into two groups: Group A (92 cases), patients who had no other cardiovascular abnormalities, and series B (130 cases), those who did. The frequency of coexisting conditions is striking, present in 65 cases (29.2%), 41 in series A (44.5% of the 92 cases) and 24 in series B (18.4% of the 130 cases). The presence of SVT or paroxysmal AF, or both alternately, was confirmed in 36 of the 222 patients (16.2%), of whom 26 had cholecystopathy (72.2% of the 36), with no significant difference between series A and B. It follows that cholecystopathies, through a reflex mechanism, are an important and very frequent etiological factor in atrial arrhythmias, a finding that gains further support when considering the disappearance or marked improvement of these arrhythmias following treatment of biliary tract disease—results far superior to those achieved with antiarrhythmic drugs when the etiology is different. There are reasons to believe that the various atrial arrhythmias are closely related to one another, as if they were members of the same family.