What is WPW syndrome?

Wpw is actually preexcitation syndrome, which is also a common type of preexcitation syndrome with a high incidence rate, reaching about 3%. Wpw mainly indicates abnormal conditions of the heart, such as atrial flutter, premature beats, etc. The causes of wpw syndrome may include congenital heart disease, acquired heart disease, etc.

WPW syndrome is the most common type of preexcitation syndrome, with an incidence of 0.1‰ to 3.1‰. 90% of patients are under 50 years old. There are more males than females, with males accounting for 60% to 70%. The disease can occur in all age groups, but the incidence decreases with age. 40% to 80% of patients with preexcitation syndrome have concurrent rapid arrhythmias, including paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, premature beats, etc. A few can cause sudden death.

Congenital heart disease

The above situations often coexist in the occurrence of congenital heart and vascular malformations. Therefore, many congenital heart diseases such as atrial septal defect, transposition of great vessels, tricuspid atresia or Ebstein anomaly, ventricular septal defect, tetralogy of Fallot, aortic coarctation, mitral valve multileaflet malformation, bicuspid aorta and pulmonary artery, etc. can be combined with preexcitation syndrome. In patients with congenital mitral valve malformation, the electrocardiogram often shows type A WPW, while patients with tricuspid atresia or Ebstein anomaly often show type B WPW, which suggests that WPW syndrome and valvular developmental malformations are homologous to structural defects in the atrioventricular ring during embryonic development. The incidence of WPW in patients with Ebstein anomaly can be as high as 5% to 25%, and all of them are right atrium-ventricular bypass.

Acquired heart disease

Valvular disease, various cardiomyopathies, coronary heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, cardiac trauma, etc. may be accompanied by preexcitation syndrome, which is often manifested as type A WPW, most of which are left atrium-ventricular bypass. It is generally believed that preexcitation syndrome, which occurs after suffering from acquired heart disease, is not caused by the acquired heart disease itself. The bypass pathway of preexcitation syndrome already exists, but before the onset of the disease, due to the relationship between the bypass pathway and the electrophysiological characteristics of the atrioventricular node-His-Purkinje system axis diameter, the bypass pathway did not perform conduction function and therefore could not be displayed on the electrocardiogram. With age or after suffering from certain heart disease, the relationship between the electrophysiological characteristics of the two conduction pathways changes, and the bypass accelerates conduction, resulting in the appearance of the characteristics of preexcitation syndrome on the electrocardiogram.

Familial Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome

Familial Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is an autosomal dominant genetic disease. It has been confirmed that the gene related to familial preexcitation syndrome is located on chromosome 7q3, and is linked to three loci on 7q3: D7S505, D7S483 and D7S688, with D7S505 having the highest Lod value.