Changing Perspectives in the Preexcitation Syndromes

Abstract

After the Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome was originally described,¹ Scherf suggested that the association of a short P-R interval, wide QRS complexes, and a susceptibility to paroxysmal arrhythmias was due to the presence of an accessory pathway capable of conduction in parallel with the normal atrioventricular junctional system.² During episodes of "circus-movement" tachycardia, the accessory pathways were part of a reentry circuit involving the atria, the normal atrioventricular junctional pathways, the ventricular muscle, and the accessory pathway (Kent bundle) itself, which returned the impulse to atrial tissue. During sinus rhythm, however, the only recognizable manifestation of an accessory pathway was the electrocardiographic . . .