What Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome (WPW) Looks Like on Your Watch ECG

Key Takeaways

WPW is a condition characterized by an abnormal electrical pathway between your heart's upper and lower chambers. This extra pathway can cause rapid heart rates and potentially lead to symptoms like palpitations, dizziness, breathlessness, and chest pain.
To recognize WPW on your watch ECG, look for a short PR interval, a "delta" wave at the beginning of the QRS complex, and a wide QRS complex. For clarity, this article presents visual examples of WPW on watch ECGs.
While WPW is generally not life-threatening, it can lead to complications and discomfort. Individuals with WPW might experience symptoms triggered by exercise, caffeine, alcohol, or emotions. As always, seek medical attention if symptoms arise, or if you believe you show signs of WPW.

WPW is a condition characterized by an abnormal electrical pathway between your heart's upper and lower chambers. This extra pathway can cause rapid heart rates and potentially lead to symptoms like palpitations, dizziness, breathlessness, and chest pain.
To recognize WPW on your watch ECG, look for a short PR interval, a "delta" wave at the beginning of the QRS complex, and a wide QRS complex. For clarity, this article presents visual examples of WPW on watch ECGs.
While WPW is generally not life-threatening, it can lead to complications and discomfort. Individuals with WPW might experience symptoms triggered by exercise, caffeine, alcohol, or emotions. As always, seek medical attention if symptoms arise, or if you believe you show signs of WPW.

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Got other questions on WPW? See the Qaly guides on WPW:

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Introduction

Hello, heart hero. In your quest to identify that irregular heart rhythm you just felt, you may have come across the terms Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome or WPW. With your trusty watch ECG now in hand, you may be wondering, "What does Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome look like on my watch ECG?" In this guide, we'll help you see Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome on your watch ECG. Let's dive in.

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What's Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome?

Before trying to identify WPW on your ECG, it's helpful to remind yourself what WPW actually is. (If you're confident in your WPW knowledge, though, skip on ahead to the next section for some visual examples of a WPW ECG).

To start, remember how your heart beats? It produces an electrical signal, which squeezes and unsqueezes your heart, which in turn pumps your blood to your lungs for oxygen and then out to the rest of your body.

Normally, your heart produces that electrical signal from your "sinus node" in your heart's upper chambers, or atria, to generate a normal heartbeat. Then, that electrical signal travels through your heart's atrioventricular (AV) node to reach your heart's lower chambers, or ventricles. In Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, there's an abnormal electrical connection between your atria and ventricles, and your heart's electrical signal passes through the extra pathway as well as the AV node.

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So What Does WPW Look Like on My Watch ECG?

To identify WPW on your ECG, look for these tell-tale signs:

A short PR interval, less than 120 milliseconds.
A delta wave, which is an electrical signal at the beginning of the QRS complex that makes it wider than normal.
A wide QRS complex.

For visual examples, take a look at WPW seen on Qaly members' watch ECGs.

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The ultimate WPW watch ECG guide, created with love by the team at Qaly ❤️ Find us on App Store or Play Store.

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Here's WPW caught on a Qaly member's Apple Watch ECG. Notice the short PR interval, the wide QRS complex, and the presence of a “delta” wave.

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Here's WPW caught on a Qaly member's Samsung Watch ECG. Here too, notice the short PR interval, the wide QRS complex, and the presence of a “delta” wave.

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Is WPW a Cause for Concern?

WPW usually isn't serious or life-threatening; however, it can lead to a heart attack if left untreated or unmanaged.

Common symptoms of WPW include:

Dizziness
Palpitations
Breathlessness
Chest pain

These symptoms can last seconds, minutes, or hours, which vary between people's experiences. Symptoms may appear after exercising, after drinking caffeine or alcohol, or after an emotional episode but can also appear with no trigger. Also, WPW can sometimes be confused with Supraventricular Tachycardia, or SVT. Here's an explainer guide on WPW vs SVT on your ECG.

As always, if you show signs of WPW, please contact your health care provider as soon as possible to rule out harmful underlying conditions.

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Conclusion

Well, that just about wraps up our guide on what WPW looks like on your watch ECG. We hope this could be of some help to you.

If you still need help interpreting your ECGs, don't worry, we understand how scary and confusing it can be to experience irregular heartbeats. That's why we created the Qaly app for you and for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who live with heart palpitations and abnormal heart rhythms. On the Qaly app, human experts will interpret your ECGs within minutes for clarity and peace of mind.

To get started with the Qaly app, grab the Qaly app from the App Store or Play Store today. If you have any more questions, or if you need our help in any other way, don't hesitate to reach out to us at support@qaly.co or explore our guide on how to read ECG.

As always from the team at Qaly, stay heart healthy ❤️

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