Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome

You’re in the right place to receive expert care of your heart. Our electrophysiologists, cardiologists and other specialists are highly experienced in diagnosing and treating all types of heart rhythm conditions, including Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.

What is Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome?

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is a rare condition that’s present at birth. With this condition, you’re born with an extra electrical pathway in your heart that causes a very fast heartbeat. Also called WPW syndrome, the condition leads to episodes of tachycardia, a type of irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) where your heart beats 100 or more times per minute. 

Doctors don’t always know why the extra electrical connection in the heart develops. Sometimes, a genetic mutation may cause it, but most often it’s unknown. 

With treatment, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome usually doesn’t cause problems and you can enjoy life to the fullest with a normal life expectancy. But left untreated, serious complications can develop if you have other heart conditions.

Symptoms of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome

You can experience symptoms of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome at any age. But the most common sign is episodes of a fast heartbeat that usually start in your teens or early 20s. You may have just a few episodes or have them once or twice a week, and they can begin suddenly and last for a few seconds or several hours. 

Other symptoms you may experience include:

• Anxiety
• Dizziness, light-headedness or fainting
• Fatigue or weakness, especially with exercise
• Difficulty breathing
• Heart palpitations
• Chest tightness or pain

Diagnosing Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome

Sometimes, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is diagnosed when you’re a child. But most often, you’ll find out you have the condition when you begin to experience symptoms in your teens or later. 

To diagnose Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, we’ll start with a thorough physical exam, and ask about your symptoms and family history. We may order tests for you, such as:

• Electrocardiogram (EKG) to record the electrical activity of your heart and check your heart rhythm
• Portable monitoring with a Holter monitor that uses a small, battery-powered EKG that continuously records your heart rate and rhythm over a 24-hour period
• Cardiac catheterization, where we guide a long, thin tube called a catheter through an artery to your heart to find out what kind of arrhythmia you may have and where it starts. We may also test medicines during this procedure to see which ones will work best in treating your arrhythmia. 

Find out more about our heart and vascular testing and diagnosis.

Treating Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome

Your care plan for Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome will include treatments to slow your rapid heart rate and prevent future episodes. We may recommend:

• Medication to help control your fast heartbeat 
• Cardioversion, where our specialists send an electrical pulse to your heart to correct the arrhythmia and quickly restore your normal rhythm
• Cardiac ablation, a minimally invasive procedure where we may use the stereotaxis magnetic navigation technology to gently guide a catheter to your heart and use heat or extreme cold to destroy the tissue causing your abnormal rhythm