# Imaging-based Identification of Premature Ventricular Contraction-mediated

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2020 · $660,413

## Abstract

The cause of premature ventricular contraction (PVC)-mediated cardiomyopathy is unknown.
The estimated prevalence of PVCs is high in the general population with reported 40-75% on
ambulatory monitoring. PVCs are often considered benign, but may be associated with
increased risk of sudden death or associated with chest pain, syncope, or heart failure,
especially when structural heart disease is present. A long-term study on patients with relatively
low PVC burden showed no difference in survival. However, high PVC burden is associated with
lower left ventricular function in patients with and without structural disease. Unfortunately,
suppressing PVCs by ablation or antiarrhythmic medications do not always improve ventricular
function in patients. Animal models have showed that bigeminy pacing near the apex could
induce a cardiomyopathy that is reversible without myocardial structural changes. However,
these models do not explain the lack of cardiomyopathy development in some human subjects
with frequent PVCs such as bigeminy. We propose that frequent pathologic PVCs lead to PVC-
induced cardiomyopathy in normal hearts and PVC-worsened cardiomyopathy in hearts with
abnormal tissue characteristics. The pathologic versus benign PVCs can be determined by LV
function during PVC, which is quantitatively assessed using advanced real-time cardiac
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. LV function during PVC is likely a result of a
combination of factors including PVC site of origin, coupling interval, and conduction time
through the myocardium. Together with tissue characterization of the ventricular myocardium by
cardiac MRI and electroanatomic voltage mapping, this proposal seeks to identify hemodynamic
and structural features in PVC-induced or worsened cardiomyopathy in order to better select
patients for treatment.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9971898
- **Project number:** 1R01HL148103-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Yuchi Han
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $660,413
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-04-08 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9971898

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9971898, Imaging-based Identification of Premature Ventricular Contraction-mediated (1R01HL148103-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9971898. Licensed CC0.

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