How is Wolff (Wolfe)-Parkinson-White diagnosed?
WPW is diagnosed by performing an ECG. The ECG usually shows two abnormalities when the patient is free of symptoms – a short PR interval and a delta wave. It is often an incidental finding during a routine ECG check as part of a medical insurance or detected by a cardiologist when a patient is referred with palpitations. Top of the page Treatment The ideal treatment in patients with symptoms is to destroy the extra electrical pathway, a procedure termed radio frequency catheter ablation. This is done by passing a wire into the heart, often via the large artery (femoral artery) in the leg. The abnormal pathway is located by electrical stimulation and destroyed by passing a high current through it. This takes approximately 2-3 hours and requires one night in hospital. For patients above 25 years without any symptoms there is no need for further tests. Younger patients (under 25 years) are most at risk of sudden death and require further tests to assess their risk of developing life thre
