Cardiac mortality of premature ventricular complexes in healthy people in Japan

Premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) are frequently encountered in healthy people. But the association between PVCs and cardiac events is not well established in Japan. We investigated the association of PVCs and cardiac deaths in people without cardiovascular disease in the Jichi Medical School (JMS) Cohort study.

We conducted a prospective cohort study in 12 districts in Japan as part of the JMS cohort study. Baseline data were obtained between April 1992 and July 1995. We excluded subjects who had myocardial infarction and stroke and those who had not received 12-lead electrocardiograms. Cox's proportional hazard model was used to calculate the hazard ratios (HRs) of cardiovascular mortality of subjects with PVCs, using subjects without PVCs as reference.

A total of 11,158 participants (4333 males and 6825 females) were analyzed. Participants were followed for an average of 11.9 years. PVCs were present in 1.4% of men and 1.1% of women. There were 92 cardiac deaths (47 males and 45 females) during the follow-up period. In crude cardiovascular mortality, HRs (95% confidence interval [CI]) were 5.29 (1.64-17.0) in males and 2.14 (0.29-15.5) in females. Age-adjusted HRs were 3.73 (1.16-12.0) and 0.98 (0.13-7.21), respectively. After further adjustment for body mass index, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol level, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and blood glucose, HRs were 3.98 (1.21-13.0) and 0.95 (0.13-7.11), respectively.

We conclude that PVCs are a predictive factor for cardiac death in men without structural heart disease.