History of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome

Abstract

While Drs. Wolff, Parkinson, and White fully described the syndrome that bears their names in 1930, prior case reports had already described the essentials. Over the ensuing century this syndrome has captivated the interest of anatomists, clinical cardiologists, and cardiac surgeons. Stanley Kent described lateral muscular connections over the atrioventricular (AV) groove, which he felt were the normal AV connections. The normal AV connections were, however, clearly described by His and Tawara. True right-sided AV connections were initially described by Wood et al., while Ohnell first described left free wall pathways. David Scherf is thought to be the first to describe our current understanding of the pathogenesis of the Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome in terms of a reentrant circuit involving both the AV node--His axis as well as the accessory pathway. This hypothesis was not universally accepted and many theories were applied to explain the clinical findings. The basics of our understandings were established by the brilliant work of Pick, Langendorf, and Katz who by using careful deductive analysis of ECGs were able to define the basic pathophysiological processes. Subsequently, Wellens and Durrer applied invasive electrical stimulation to the heart in order to confirm the pathophysiological processes. Sealy and his colleagues at Duke University Medical Center were the first to successfully surgically divide an accessory pathway and ushered in the modern area for curative therapy for these patients. Morady and Scheinman were the first to successfully ablate an accessory pathway (posteroseptal) using high-energy direct-current shocks. Subsequently, Jackman, Kuck, Morady, and a number of groups proved the remarkable safety and efficiency of catheter ablation for pathways in all locations using radiofrequency energy. More recently, Gallob et al. first described the gene responsible for a familial form of WPW. The current ability to cure patients with WPW is due to the splendid contributions of individuals from diverse disciplines from throughout the world.