Summary
In 1930, Wolff, Parkinson and White described the clinical entity of what is today known as the preexcitation or WPW syndrome. In the preceding literature, the authors found four comparable cases. Later on, seven further cases published prior to 1930 were discovered. An analysis of the altogether eleven cases displays that, in addition to the anomalous ECG in sinus rhythm, nearly all typical electrocardiographic findings during the tachyarrhythmias are found in this early literature. As tachycardia ECGs especially help to understand the mechanism of the WPW syndrome, the question is discussed whether already Wolff, Parkinson and White would have been able to give the correct interpretation of the mechanism if they had taken into consideration their own tachycardia ECGs as well as those known to them from the literature.
Zusammenfassung
1930 veröffentlichten Wolff, Parkinson und White die Beschreibung der später nach ihnen als WPW-Syndrom benannten klinischen Entität. In der vorausgehenden Literatur fanden sie vier vergleichbare Fälle. Später wurden noch weitere sieben vor 1930 publizierte Kasuistiken entdeckt. Die gemeinsame Betrachtung dieser insgesamt elf Fälle aus heutiger Sicht zeigt, dass neben dem anomalen EKG im Intervall nahezu alle für das Syndrom typischen elektrokardiographischen Tachykardie-Befunde schon in dieser frühen Literatur zu finden sind. Da gerade die Tachykardie-EKG wesentlich zum Verständnis des Mechanismus des WPW-Syndroms beitragen, wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob bereits die Erstbeschreiber der korrekten Interpretation der Entität näher gekommen wären, wenn sie auch die ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden eigenen bzw. publizierten Tachykardie-EKG in ihre Erklärungsversuche einbezogen hätten.
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von Knorre, G.H. Die WPW-Kasuistiken in der Literatur vor der Publikation von Wolff, Parkinson und White im Jahr 1930. Herzschr. Elektrophys. 17, 40–46 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00399-006-0482-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00399-006-0482-4