The burden of premature ventricular contractions predicts adverse fetal and neonatal outcomes among pregnant women without structural heart disease

Abstract Objective: To investigate the outcomes of fetuses or neonates of pregnant women with premature ventricular contractions (PVCs). Study design: 6, 148 pregnant women were prospectively enrolled in the study. Of these women, 103 with a PVC burden >0.5% were divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of adverse fetal or neonatal events. The adverse outcomes were compared between the groups to assess the impact of PVCs on pregnancy. Results: A total of 17 adverse events (12 cases) occurred among 103 pregnant women with PVCs, which was significantly higher than that among women without PVCs (11.65% vs. 2.93%, p<0.01). The median PVC burden among pregnant women with PVCs was 2.84% (1.02% to 6.1%). Furthermore, compared with that of the women without adverse events, the median PVC burden of women with adverse fetal or neonatal outcomes was significantly higher (9.02% vs. 2.30%, p<0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that PVC burden was associated with adverse fetal or neonatal outcomes among pregnant women with PVCs (OR: 1.34, 95% CI (1.11-1.61), p<0.01). Conclusions: Frequent PVCs have adverse effects on pregnancy, and the PVC burden might be an important factor associated with adverse fetal and neonatal outcomes among pregnant women with PVCs. Our cohort study indicated that the higher the PVC burden is, the higher the likelihood of adverse events would be.