Heart Condition Saturday: Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome
April 8, 2006 by Lei
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome is a rare heart condition that affects between 0.1 and 3% of the general population with many of these people never experiencing a symptom in their lives. For some, however, an attack can be very severe.
WPW is a condition in which the electrical signals of the heart is abnormal leading to pre-excitation syndromes. Symptoms include:
- Extremely rapid heart beat that jumps up very quickly
- Dizziness
- Chest palpitations
- Fainting during physical exertion
- Cardiac arrest in extreme cases
Jeff Carter was one such person with WPW. In June 2005, his mother found him after he had already collapsed and suffered severe brain damage. She is now trying to raise the money to bring him home and keeps a log of his progress at Just4Jeff.info.
