Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome is caused by a deletion of genetic material near the end of the short (p) arm of chromosome 4. This chromosomal change is sometimes written as 4p-.
Some people may have episodes on a daily basis, while others may only experience them a few times a year. They normally occur randomly, without any identifiable cause, but they can sometimes be triggered by strenuous exercise or drinking a lot of alcohol or caffeine.
Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome can affect anyone since it's a genetic condition. Most cases aren't inherited, meaning your parent's don't pass the condition onto you. Instead, the condition is the result of a random (de novo) chromosome deletion during either egg or sperm development or early in embryonic development.
WPW is not a dangerous disease for most people. You can manage or correct the condition with treatment. The biggest risk is for sudden death from a heart attack, which tachycardia can cause. However, this is extremely rare, occurring in less than one-half of 1 percent of cases.
Key points about Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome
It causes rapid heart rate. Medicine can help control symptoms. Cardiac ablation can cure the disease in most cases. Talk with your healthcare provider right away if you have symptoms of WPW.
With appropriate referral, treatment, and patient education, patients with WPW syndrome can expect to have a normal life expectancy and good quality of life.
The dispersion of atrial refractoriness was also shown to increase progressively with age. Therefore, the prevalence of a potentially malignant form of WPW syndrome in asymptomatic subjects does not decrease significantly with age.
The episodes of fast heartbeats seen in WPW syndrome usually aren't life-threatening, but serious heart problems can occur. Rarely, WPW syndrome may lead to sudden cardiac death in children and young adults.
DO avoid tobacco, smoking, caffeine, alcohol, pseudo-ephedrine (a nasal decongestant) and similar antihistamines, amphetamines, and cocaine. DO tell your health care provider about unusually fast heartbeats or near fainting. DO keep your doctor's appointments.
Most cases of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome occur in people with no apparent family history of the condition. These cases are described as sporadic and are not inherited. Familial Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome accounts for only a small percentage of all cases of this condition.
The prevalence of Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome is estimated to be 1 in 50,000 births. However, this may be an underestimate because it is likely that some affected individuals are never diagnosed.
Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is a genetic disorder that affects many parts of the body. The major features include a characteristic facial appearance, delayed growth and development, intellectual disability, low muscle tone (hypotonia), and seizures.
As far as communicative development is concerned, speech is usually absent and comprehension is limited to simple orders or to a specific context. There is some suggestion, however, that the developmental outcome in WHS depends on deletion size.
Patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome may present with a multitude of symptoms such as unexplained anxiety, palpitations, fatigue, light-headedness or dizziness, loss of consciousness, and shortness of breath.
Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW) is a heart condition that occurs in people born with a certain heart defect. This congenital condition (meaning, you were born with it) changes the usual pathway that electrical impulses, or signals, travel through your heart.
Patients with WPW syndrome may experience palpitations, dizziness, syncope, congestive heart failure or sudden cardiac death (SCD). In some patients, the first and only manifestation of the disease is SCD.
Symptoms can start without warning. However, certain things may trigger them, including caffeine, alcohol, and stimulants. The condition is rare and affects all ages, including infants.
Radiofrequency ablation — Radiofrequency catheter ablation of the accessory pathway is the treatment of choice for people with WPW syndrome. Radiofrequency ablation procedures are performed in a hospital electrophysiology lab using X-ray equipment and can take two to three hours to complete.
WPW is not usually hereditary, that is, it is not usually passed from parents to children. In the normal conduction system, there is only one pathway for electrical signals to pass from the heart's upper chambers — the atria- to the heart's lower chambers — the ventricles. This pathway is called the AV node.
In most cases the episodes of tachycardia are short-lived and the person recovers quickly. However some of the complications of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome can include: Low blood pressure. Loss of consciousness.
The extra electrical pathway of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is present at birth and is a congenital heart abnormality occurring in about 1 per 1,000. Young men have a higher incidence of WPW than women. Episodes of tachycardia often first occur when they are in their teens or early 20s.
While some studies suggest that exercise does not alter accessory pathway characteristics, exercise appears to put some athletes with WPW at risk for a lethal arrhythmia.
The risk of stroke in WPW syndrome is very low (0.7%). Only one clinical factor differs significantly from remaining population, the relatively old age (mean 62 ± 9 years).
Wolf–Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is a condition that causes malformations in many parts of the body due to a genetic chromosome deletion. The syndrome was first defined in 1961 by Herbert L. Cooper and Kurt Hirschhorn who described a child with a distinct facial appearance.
Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is a common genetic condition and prenatal diagnosis is difficult due to heterogeneous expression of this syndrome and rather non-specific ultrasound findings.