If I had WPW, will my children have it?

[Tollymom29]

I had WPW syndrome discovered in my early 20's. I had been symptomatic for years, but didn't know what it was. Had a successful ablation and haven't had any problems in the 20 years since. My question is, are my children at higher risk for developing it? I had them each get an EKG when they were around 1 year of age. My daughter has had a surgery to remove a cyst by her eye since then and no pre-op tests showed any problems. My kids are now 10 and 8. Should I get them an EKG regularly? Or would it have shown up as the delta wave on their EKG from when they were babies.

Thanks,
Tolly

[tom_h]

"Real" Wolff-Parkinson-White" MOST OF THE TIME! will lave a tell tale delta wave, or a slurred upstroke in the QRS complex that is associated with a short PR interval. The short PR interval and slurring of the QRS complex is actually the impulse making it through to the ventricles prematurely.  Cool stuff!  I can't tell you how many cardiologists believed they saw a delta wave in my traces.  Even the EP who did my ablation first believed that I had WPW type of AVRT.  it wasn't until they got the wires in my heart that they determined that I in fact had Circus Motion Tachycardia, a type of AVRT like WPW.  Many people either mistakenly use the term WPW for the different forms of SVT.  they may feel the same, but there's a difference!

[grendslori]

Maybe, maybe not. I would not waste the time to do EKGs on your children because unless they are symptomatic, they won't be treated for WPW as a preventative measure unless they have some other form of heart disease which would make the WPW possibly life threatening. If they start complaining about their heart beating too fast, then take them for an evaluation; an EKG would be done at that time. Let your children be children without having them getting worried about their heart. The last thing you want for them is to turn them into cardiac cripples with all of that anxiety.

[curmudgen]

This is what I found after doing an internet search for the question -
Is WPW syndrome hereditary....  you need to find out from a primary source when the symptoms might show up...  however there is a 50% chance that each of your children do not have WPW.  Hope this helps

" Familial WPW syndrome has an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. In autosomal dominant inheritance 50% of the offspring inherit the mutated gene and are at risk of developing the disease and affects males and females equally."