Prizma on the way!!, page-19

Hi Ginger,

Since i'm not a clinician (I conduct my research in animal models due to the invasive and dangerous nature of the measurements I collect), I am not comfortable giving you any sort of medical advice in regard to the ectopic beats but I can explain what they are/mean in terms of heart function.

An ectopic beat occurs when the heart skips a regular beat, this means the next one in the series is a much stronger contraction because the heart needs to make up for the missed beat in order to maintain your mean arterial blood pressure. Ectopic beats are very normal in everyone, some people notice them and others don't, if you have ever noticed a once off thud feeling in your chest that was most likely an ectopic beat and the feeling is caused by the increased contractile force of the heart. Stress can increase the amount of ectopic beats you have, also stimulants like caffiene and red bull etc have been shown to
exacerbate them in some (not all) people. In some cases, older people also experience ectopic beats more often than younger people, although I am 28 and I have seen them on ECG's I have measured on myself also. The main concern with ectopic beats is when a patient starts having 3 or more ectopic beats in a row, this causes dramatic drops in blood pressure which can lead to lightheadedness and fainting but it also increases the chance the ectopic beats can converge into an episode of ventricular tachycardia (VT) which is a very fast and uncontrolled heart rate that doesn't allow efficient movement of blood through the heart, unlike ectopic beats, this condition requires medical treatment.

It seems as though the doctors have taken the right steps in your case, a holter monitor and stress test should identify any major issues in most cases. So given they are happy with that, they must not see anything of major concern, however it never hurts to get a second opinion when it comes to your own health if you are worried.

Hope that helps you understand the condition a little more, I find that while clinicians are great at diagnosing/treating, a large number of them I have seen/dealt with do not understand the importance of explaining the underlying mechanisms of the condition to their patients.

Also @RA_86_99 you are correct, the prizma is a 1 lead ECG (the most basic ECG you can collect) and the patch is 4 lead which means the electrical activity can be measured across 4 different angles of the heart and can provide much more in depth information about the heart.

As I said at the start, this is all my opinion and you should see a clinician regarding any heart conditions you are having, I am just explaining the physiology behind the problem.

Cheers.