A 21-year-old man arrives at the office with recurrent heart palpitations that begin and end abruptly. Following an initial workup, the physician suspects that this patient's heart has an abnormal conduction pathway that bypasses the atrioventricular node. Which part of the patient's ECG is most likely to be affected during normal sinus rhythm, assuming the diagnosis is correct?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Eductional Objective: The presence of an accessory conduction pathway causes symptomatic paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (eg, atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia) in Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. The presence of this accessory pathway causes ventricular preexcitation during normal sinus rhythm, which can be identified on ECG by the triad of a shortened PR interval, an early upslope of the QRS complex (delta wave), and a widened QRS interval.

A 21-Year-Old Man Arrives at the Office with Recurrent Heart