Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome

Also know as ventricular pre-excitation, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome was first described as an arrhythmia with variable presentations on an ECG, commonly resulting in supraventricular tachycardia and ultimately heart failure.  To put it more clearly, the muscles in the ventricles of a patient with WPW (as it is abbreviated) would become depolarized sooner than would be expected if the signal had crossed through the A-V node. It was later shown that this premature depolarization was being caused by an abnormal "bridge" of tissue (cardiac muscle) connecting the atria and the ventricles at one or more locations around the heart base.