Ventricular premature beats and anatomically defined coronary heart disease.

Ambulatory 24 hour electrocardiographic monitoring was performed in 124 patients before cardiac catheterization and coronary angiography. Ventricular premature beats were demonstrated in 83% of all patients. Ectopic activity persisted for at least 3 of the 24 hours in 75% of the 84 patients with coronary heart disease, 61% of 28 with other heart disease and in 24% of 12 normal subjects. The prevalence and grade of ventricular premature beats were increased in the 57 patients with multivessel disease compared with values in the 27 patients with one vessel disease (P less than 0.01). Findings in the latter group did not differ from those of normal subjects. The presence of elevated left ventricular end-diastolic pressure of asynergy was associated with increased ventricular ectopy. Of 15 patients having both asynergy and elevated left ventricular end=diastolic pressure (more than 19 mm Hg), 40% had paroxysms of ventricular tachycardia and 67% had coupled beats; these findings were present in 6 and 12%, respectively, of the 34 patients without asynergy or pressure abnormality (P less than 0.005). Repeat monitoring performed in 65 patients demonstrated greater reproducibility of advanced grades of ventricular premature beats among those with the most severe lesions. For the individual patient the prevalence and grade of ventricular ectopy may not always correlate with the severity of coronary artery disease or degree of left ventricular dysfunction.