Arrhythmias & electrophysiology
Frequent premature ventricular complexes and risk of atrial fibrillation, heart failure, stroke and mortality: a meta-analysis
Authors' conclusion
Frequent PVCs confer significantly increased cardiovascular risks in populations largely without overt structural heart disease, though baseline cardiac assessment varied across studies.
Study context
- Population
- Adults without established CVD20 articles
- Participants
- 26,783,590 adults17 studies
- Comparison
- Frequent Premature Ventricular Complexes (PVCs) vs no frequent PVCs
- Outcome
- Incident AF, HF, stroke and all-cause mortality
- Follow-up
- minimum 12-month follow-up
Methodological detailsrandom-effects, meta-regression
- Random-effects
- Meta-regression
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
AF, HF, stroke, all-cause mortality
Frequent PVCsHazard ratio (95% CI)
AF; PI 0.91-3.12
1.69(1.39–2.05)
HF; PI 1.18-2.54
1.73(1.50–2.00)
Stroke; PI 0.90-1.82
1.28(1.10–1.50)
All-cause mortality; PI 0.79-2.18
1.31(1.10–1.56)
Further pooled results
AF risk per 1% increment in PVC burden (meta-regression)
- Increased AF risk per 1% increment in PVC burden
- 5.4%
Heterogeneity, Holter-quantified PVCs (sensitivity analysis)
- Heterogeneity substantially reduced
Original publication
Frequent premature ventricular complexes and risk of atrial fibrillation, heart failure, stroke and mortality: a meta-analysis. Heart. Published 6 October 2025. doi:10.
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