心搏

Ms. Lam,
Premature ectopic beats are common and benign and will not progress
into malignant conditions. It is quite bothersome as you may feel
thumps in the chest, but that's all it is going to be. Ectopic beats
are produced from an ectopic site in the heart, triggered by physical
or mental stress. The ectopic site in turn produces an electrical
impulse that will function similarly to a normal electrical impulse
but a little stronger. This condition is not exclusive to lupus
erythematosus. Everyone may have a chance of having various degrees of
premature ectopic beats. Only those who have frequent ectopics >10% or
with underlying heart failure that warrants an ablation surgery to
eradicate the ectopic focus in the heart.

Typical lupus heart condition not only have a higher chance of having
ectopics, due to its chronic system inflammatory process, lupus
cardiac complications also include bundle branch blocks, congenital
heart conduction defects, coronary atherosclerosis, myocarditis
(7-10%), pericarditis (11-54%), and a sterile form of endocarditis
that occurs among lupus patients called Libman Sacks endocarditis,
which no oral medication is specifically helpful for this condition,
apart from treating the underlying condition. If the endocarditis
progresses to a point that causes heart failure, then valvular repair
or valvular replacement is indicated.

Dr. Jason Ko