Prevalence and Morphology of Premature Ventricular Contractions on Routine Athletic Electrocardiogram Screening

Introduction: The clinical implications of incidental premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are poorly understood. Though controversial, athletes often receive electrocardiograms (ECGs) during pre-participation exams. The prevalence and morphologies of PVCs in this cohort have not been widely reported. Recent studies have defined benign PVC morphologic patterns in athlete populations that may guide clinical evaluations. Methods: Digital ECGs were obtained from 10,728 screened athletes aged 14 to 35 at school and professional team screenings in California. Captured PVCs were analyzed using simultaneous frontal and horizontal plane leads, displaying each standard ECG lead in full-length, allowing for morphologic categorization. PVCs were coded for morphology and benign status using recommended criteria outlined in Figure 1. Results: Twenty-six of 10,728 athletes (0.24%) had at least one PVC (Figure 1); 7 of those (27%) had bigeminy and 3 of those (12%) had trigeminy. Overall, participants were 43% female, 62% White, 12% Black, 9% Asian, and 8% Hispanic. Of those with PVCs, 50% were female, 65% were White, 23% were Black, 8% were Asian, and 4% were Hispanic. Twenty-four ECGs (92%) had PVCs with benign patterns, including 17 with right ventricular outflow tract, 5 with left anterior fascicle, and 2 with left posterior fascicle morphology. Two ECGs had non-benign PVCs with left bundle branch patterns and superior axes. Both of these athletes had normal echocardiograms and exercise testing and are being followed closely. Conclusions: We found a low prevalence of PVCs on routine ECG screening of young athletes, although evaluation of PVC prevalence and frequency are limited by the short duration of an ECG. Most incidental PVCs among young athletes had benign patterns. This study also demonstrates the value of digital ECG recorders to display simultaneous frontal and horizontal plane leads for the morphologic categorization of PVCs which may guide further workup.