Delta Wave

[Candy0529]

I am a 28 year old active duty navy female.  I have been to a cardiologist twice.  My ekg has come back with a Delta wave.  I get palpitations on a fairly regular basis.  My resting heart rate is around 46 - 50 bpm.  My cholesterol is 160.  Bad 100.6  Good 60, triglycerides 24.  I am very worried about this Delta wave.  I have no arrythmias, am active, no heart disease runs in the family that I know of.  I weigh 140, and am 5'7".  Should I be worried about going to see the electrophysiologist.  Just today I was having palpitations while playing basketball, it felt like my heart was skipping.  I could hear it in my stomach and a double sound in my neck.

[chrsaaron]

well, a palp. just means you feel your heart. but this also means somehting is going on in your heart rythm that causes the palp. feeling. If your not feeling dizzy or faint, and no chest pain, or short of breath.. I wouldn't get too worked up.
First let me explain the p q r s and t wave on an ecg...
P wave, is when the sa node fires the electrical impulse to beat, then this signal travels down through the heart causing all the chambers of the heart to contract in order.
Q wave is the next stop this contiues through the s wave... and resets with the t wave getting ready for another p wave to fire....notice no delta wave. In a normal ecg there is no delta wave...now don't get worried. A delta wave is just part of the qrs complex this is the qrs wave put together, called a qrs complex ...it's the big spike you see on an ecg screen....the first little pump is the p wave...then a little dip q wave ..big spike up R wave...and back down S wave. then a little bump t wave....this is nomral...a delta wave appears as part of qrs...on the left side normally..meaning there's some disruption in the contraction of the ventricle....this doesn't mean anything, right of the bat, it just means that some electrical pathway is not acting the way it should. it makes the that big spike on the ecg look like a bulge or wiggle a little on one side only, so they call it a delta wave, as it goes horizontal rather than completley vertical, it is a devation..not a diagnoses. So the next step would be to see an EP, like you are doing to determine what if anything is going on. Feeling palps. doens't mean your goign to die, or that you have heart disease. It may mean you have Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which is named after the guys who first saw the little swiggle on one side of the qrs complex. WPW is a syndrome of pre-excitation of the ventricles of the heart due to an accessory pathway known as the bundle of Kent. This accessory pathway is an abnormal electrical communication from the atria to the ventricles. In normal terms, the sa node fires and then travels it's pathway...think of it like train tracks for the electricity to follow, no when yours gets near the ventricles, it follows a seperate pathway, ITs normal pathway is called the bundle of kent, now yours sometimes not all the time jumps rail to another pathaway, causing your palp, feeling and bottome two ventricles fire early, causing a palp. Now I can not dx this as the case with you but it is possible again not much to get worried about depending on where the electrical problem. this depends on several factors...family history which you don't have...good....does the delta wave disappear at high heart rates...if it does good....if not, then the gold standard cure, is radio ablation....it's a one day procedure...no scares, no surgery, use radio waves to destroy that extra rail way, and no more palps....Again wait and see what the EP doc says,,,,,but I wouldn't worry, your not going to drop dead. I hope this helps and wasn't clear as mud.

[Paxiled]

And your cholesterol is great, so you're obviously eating well and getting your exercise.  Listen to the Green one.

[RubyWitch]

Hi Candy! Welcome to the forum. I can understand your anxiety perfectly. You should not be worried about seeing the electrophysiologist. IF, and that's a big "if," there is anything going on, they will find it and correct it. You are doing the very best thing for yourself.
You also might want to post this question over on the Heart Rhythm Forum. Those folks there know a great deal more about this than I do and can probably reassure you better than I can.
I can tell you that just about everybody on THIS forum knows all about heart palps! 99.9% of the time they are totally harmless. Kinda scary and annoying, but they will not hurt you or your heart.
Please let us know what they say, OK?
Peace
Greenlydia