After 67 years I just found out...
Posted , 4 users are following.
I am a 67 year-old male who has been running 2 miles 5 or 6 days a week for the past 22 years or so. Two months ago I was an outpatient at a local hospital for a very minor surgical procedure. When they did an ECG, I drew the attention of the resident cardiologist because of the evident accesory pathway revealed by the delta wave. Since then I have been through a whole series of tests including a treadmill ECG. The treadmill revealed "stress" once my pulse rate got up to about 150. As a result, they did a radial angiogram to rule out blockage and found my arteries to be quite clear and healthy. So my concern is very straight forward. I did not know of WPW because, in spite of the strange missed beats under heavy exercise (actually very short bursts of tachycardia), I have absolutely no sypmtoms. None. I have been told, however, that if one of those short bursts were to last longer than the typical 1/4 -1/2 second, I could easily pass out or actually die. Ablation has been touted as a "cure" but I am skeptical of this and would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone with a similar case. My concerns regarding ablation center around the risks when compared to my present quality of life. Had I not had the little surgical proceedure, I would still be blissfully ignorant of WPW. Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?
0 likes, 10 replies
wpwsyndrome cliff06092
Posted
Hi Cliff,
I'm fifty and recently had the ablation but I did have. A couple of incidents where I had pretty severe symptoms. I was told the older you get, the less dangerous the pathway is but in my case it was stilld dangerous. It is so difficult to get good info because the cardiologists have different opinions than the electrophydiologists etc. my guess is that if you have no symptoms then they won't recommend an ablation and if the non invasive tests don't show risk, they won't suggest ablation. Good luck
Glow509 wpwsyndrome
Posted
Hello, so I have been going to the hospital lately due to some rapid heart rate episodes. Maybe like 4 times. This last visit I had a cardiologist tell me that it wasn't my wpw causing my rapid heart rate but svt and tachycardia. He said he thinks I don't need ablation done. He wants me to see a local electrophysiologist and wants to put a heart monitor for a month and then do a stress echo test to see if I need one done. I can see were both cardiologist and electrophysiologist have different opinions. My electrophysiologist out of town never gave me a heart monitor to wear nor gave me a stress echo test, not even medicine. I had to pretty much beg for some medicine. All he did was suggest an ablation. He also said that on one of my EKG's my wpw didn't show and that my extra pathway might be slow but there's was no way of knowing other then doing ep study. So I'm kind of relieved I found this out but then I'm also confused as to why my first doctor didn't tell me all of this.
cliff06092 wpwsyndrome
Posted
Thank you for the feedback. I have no symptoms but apparently the delta wave is always present and, as I stated earlier, I get some strange, short burst episodes of tachycardia when my pulse rate gets above about 140. I don't feel anything when that happens (no symptoms) and only know of it because of the discovery that I have wpw and have done the testing. I have a consultation with both the cardiologist and the electrophysiologist on the 19th and will know more. In the meantime, I am researching and writing down every question that comes to mind. Perhaps what I should do is be very specific in my questions for the doctors. I am thinking of asking for copies of all the test results so that I can submit everything to another doctor for a second opinion. What I am trying to find out is whether ablation is effective in my case and worth any risk.
ashley_81212 cliff06092
Posted
I'm surprised they want to do an ablation since you don't have any symptoms. Do they know something about your accessory pathway that leads them to believe it's an especially dangerous one?
That's a tough consideration. Best of luck to you.
wpwsyndrome ashley_81212
Posted
I believe it was stated that you do have symptoms. It doesn't make sense though for the doc to say that your svt and tachyacardia are not caused by wow because wpw syndrome does cause svt and tachyacardia and he could never know whether or not that is the cause. ....but if your delta wave doesn't always show up then it's likely not dangerous according to what I have read. My delta wave was always present
wpwsyndrome
Posted
Glow509 wpwsyndrome
Posted
They said it doesn't show up on my delta waves. They're gonna run further tests to see if I do get that delta wave to react and if it does then they will do the ablation for me. My cardiologist out of did say on one ekg my wpw didn't show. So he thought it might be slow. But he didn't run further tests to see that.
Glow509 wpwsyndrome
Posted
wpwsyndrome Glow509
Posted
There is a lot of articles etc if you google wpw...they stratify risks with non invasive tests...e.g. If your delta wave is intermittent then it typically means less risk, if your delta wave goes away with exercise on stress test ...less risk etc ...I don't think any of it guarantees anything though
Glow509 wpwsyndrome
Posted
Yeah I see what your saying. I am super confused thou. I got one doctor telling me it's not dangerous, I got another one saying your never know. I don't know who to believe. It's kind of frustrating.