Atrioventricular Communication in the Wolff-Parkin son-White Syndrome

Abstract

Congenital anomalous muscular connections between atrium and ventricle allow electrical activity to bypass the normal cardiac conduction system. The resultant acceleration of electrical conductivity from atrium to ventricle is recorded in the electrocardiogram as the Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome. Although usually benign, the WPW syndrome carries a low mortality rate, attributed to the frequently associated paroxysmal atrial tachycardia. Postmortem examinations of the hearts of two patients with congenital heart disease and the WPW syndrome included multiple sections of the normal conduction system and the tricuspid and mitral valve rings. In each specimen, the A-V node and bundle of His were normal. An anomalous communication between the right atrium and the right ventricle was identified in each case and interpreted as the morphologic basis of the WPW syndrome.