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Looking for answers to my heart issue
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.
hello my name is Annie I was diagnosed with CHF 3 months ago and thought I was doing much better after watching my sodium intake and dropping 30 lbs. however today I woke up feeling swollen in my abdomen ,feet and legs. what is going on is this normal
Delta waves, or WPW pattern/pre-excitation, is a condition with an extra pathway between the heart's upper and lower chambers. I can try to give a quick explaination.
We all have one pathway that connects the upper and lower chambers. It's "programmed" with a little delay, so blood can be pumped from upper to lower chambers before it's pumped through our body.The extra pathway some of us have, will start to activate one of the lower chambers before it's supposed to (it doesn't have the mentioned programmed delay). It usually have no practical consequence, except in two situations.
1) If a PAC (premature atrial complex) fires off very early, while the normal pathway is still unable to conduct impulses, the impulse can travel down the extra pathway, up the normal, and around, causing rapid heart rate. This is annoying and disturbing.
2) If the extra pathway is able to conduct impulses very fast, there may be a danger involved with atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation (can cause dangerously high heart rate).
This is the reason why a cardiologist / EP always should examine extra pathways / delta waves.
We all have one pathway that connects the upper and lower chambers. It's "programmed" with a little delay, so blood can be pumped from upper to lower chambers before it's pumped through our body.The extra pathway some of us have, will start to activate one of the lower chambers before it's supposed to (it doesn't have the mentioned programmed delay). It usually have no practical consequence, except in two situations.
1) If a PAC (premature atrial complex) fires off very early, while the normal pathway is still unable to conduct impulses, the impulse can travel down the extra pathway, up the normal, and around, causing rapid heart rate. This is annoying and disturbing.
2) If the extra pathway is able to conduct impulses very fast, there may be a danger involved with atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation (can cause dangerously high heart rate).
This is the reason why a cardiologist / EP always should examine extra pathways / delta waves.
Definitely go see an EP... A delta wave can be caused by an accessory pathway, most often WPW (wolff-parkinson-white). WPW in itself is not a problem as long as your heart stays in a good sinus rhythm.
In the heart, the AV node takes an impulse from the top of the heart, decides if it wants it to continue on or not, and if it does, it then sends it down to the bottom of the heart. In sinus rhythm, for every 1 beat in the top of the heart, you get 1 beat in the bottom of the heart. While the AV node is slowing the conduction to allow the top chambers to properly fill the bottom chambers, it's not doing much else.
However, when a person goes into A fib, the top of their heart is running around 400 beats per minute. The AV node knows that this isn't normal, so it usually blocks 3 out of every 4 beats from reaching the bottom of the heart (which produces your pulse). SO, in a fib, while the top of the heart is running at 400 beats per minute, the bottom is only running at 90 or 100 (whatever your pulse is). If the bottom of the heart is running at 400 bpm, you'd be dead and we'd be doing CPR on you.
With an accessory pathway, you have a circuit that allows conduction to bypass the AV node and go straight to the bottom of the heart. Therefore, if you were to go into A fib, and the top of your heart ran at 400bpm, so would the bottom of your heart.
Get that delta wave checked. Ablating a WPW is not that big of an ordeal anymore. It takes a couple hours and it's done. We just put a small catheter into your heart, find the bad pathway, zap it with a little radio waves to create a scar there (blocking conduction) and we're done. Piece of cake. You can usually go home a few hours after.
In the heart, the AV node takes an impulse from the top of the heart, decides if it wants it to continue on or not, and if it does, it then sends it down to the bottom of the heart. In sinus rhythm, for every 1 beat in the top of the heart, you get 1 beat in the bottom of the heart. While the AV node is slowing the conduction to allow the top chambers to properly fill the bottom chambers, it's not doing much else.
However, when a person goes into A fib, the top of their heart is running around 400 beats per minute. The AV node knows that this isn't normal, so it usually blocks 3 out of every 4 beats from reaching the bottom of the heart (which produces your pulse). SO, in a fib, while the top of the heart is running at 400 beats per minute, the bottom is only running at 90 or 100 (whatever your pulse is). If the bottom of the heart is running at 400 bpm, you'd be dead and we'd be doing CPR on you.
With an accessory pathway, you have a circuit that allows conduction to bypass the AV node and go straight to the bottom of the heart. Therefore, if you were to go into A fib, and the top of your heart ran at 400bpm, so would the bottom of your heart.
Get that delta wave checked. Ablating a WPW is not that big of an ordeal anymore. It takes a couple hours and it's done. We just put a small catheter into your heart, find the bad pathway, zap it with a little radio waves to create a scar there (blocking conduction) and we're done. Piece of cake. You can usually go home a few hours after.
Hi i read your post this morning.....the Delta wave is one of the ways that docs recognize that there is an issue with the electrical pathways of the heart and its pretty normal for a delta to pop up when there is an issue with this. Its called an indicator. Don't worry at all about seeing an EP doc...many of us on this site have seen one and moved forward with having an ablation done to correct issues as well w. our passageways and was successful for many of us. If the doc choses to have you move forward w. the ablation the success rate w. the procedure in general is very high but i would definately ask the doc if you are in the 70% or higher range for success if you chose the ablation and personally if they say yes i would go for it because they will be giving you an opportunity to put this all behind you. It is normal for you to feel you heart beat at various pulse points of your body and this definately includes the neck and stomach areas....the largest arteries of your body run thru the center of you and your carotid runs along the neck area so no worries.....don't stress it...with a pulse rate so low the doc may not want to put you on a beta blocker like antenolol or others because altho it may very well help you w. the palps it will lower your blood pressure and pulse rate further which would not be good for you w. such a low pulse rate now. An ablation is not a treatment its a cure and done by an EP doc and when i had mine a couple of years ago they handed me my life back on a silver platter.....its a simple procedure...this type of heart issue is not hereditary...it is electrical based from what i am guessing at with your post...good lucky Candy and no worries......
The presence of a delta wave can sometimes lead to a definitive diagnosis of certain types of electrical conduction issues in the heart. or not. The diagnosis has to be made by your cardiologist. I would not skip off to an EP without asking both of your cardiologists their opinion on what the Delta wave means. If your cardiologist feels you need a workup by an EP think about using the one they recommend. The benefits of using the EP the cardiologist works with would be their communication, assuming they work together a lot.
What you describe on the basketball court sounds like ectopic activity, or premature contractions of some sort. I've been around this sort of thing a while but haven't heard of delta waves being implicated in ectopic activity.
The one conduction issue I'm aware of that can be diagnosed by delta waves doesn't fit any of the symptoms you describe above.
What you describe on the basketball court sounds like ectopic activity, or premature contractions of some sort. I've been around this sort of thing a while but haven't heard of delta waves being implicated in ectopic activity.
The one conduction issue I'm aware of that can be diagnosed by delta waves doesn't fit any of the symptoms you describe above.
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