Accessory pathway properties are similar in symptomatic and asymptomatic preexcitation

• Published in: Journal of interventional cardiac electrophysiology 2022-10, Vol.65 (1), p.193-199
• Main Authors: Jemtrén, Anette, Bergfeldt, Lennart, Insulander, Per, Rubulis, Aigars, Tapanainen, Jari, Jensen-Urstad, Mats
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accessory pathways; Arrhythmia; Asymptomatic; Cardiac arrhythmia; Cardiology; Cardiology and Cardiovascular Disease; Electrical stimuli; Electrophysiological study; Kardiologi och kardiovaskulära sjukdomar; Localization; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Patients; Pre-excitation; Refractory period; Risk assessment; Sudden cardiac death; Tachycardia
• ISSN: 1383-875X; 1572-8595; 1572-8595
• DOI: 10.1007/s10840-022-01252-7

Purpose Patients with WPW syndrome have an increased mortality rate compared to the general population. Although asymptomatic preexcitation has previously been considered benign, recent studies have found that also asymptomatic patients have clinical and electrophysiological factors associated with increased risk of sudden cardiac death. This study compares the baseline electrophysiological characteristics of accessory pathways in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with preexcitation. We hypothesized that a significant proportion of asymptomatic patients has inducible orthodromic tachycardia during programmed electrical stimulation. Methods This retrospective study includes 1853 patients with preexcitation who underwent invasive electrophysiological testing in two Swedish University Hospitals between 1991 and 2018. The mean age was 36 ± 17 years with a range of 3–89 years. Thirty-nine percent was women. A total of 269 patients (15%) were children younger than 18 years. Electrophysiological data included effective refractory period of the accessory pathway (APERP, in 1069 patients), tachycardia cycle length, inducibility and type of tachycardia, and AP localization. Results A total of 1703 (93%) patients reported symptoms suggesting tachyarrhythmias before the study and 128 (7%) were asymptomatic. The proportion of potentially dangerous pathways with short APERP (≤ 250 ms) were similar in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients (187/949, 20% vs. 25/108, 23%) ( P  = 0.40) as was the mean APERP (303 ± 68 ms vs. 307 ± 75) ( P  = 0.61). The proportion of patients who had inducible arrhythmia was larger in the symptomatic group (64% vs. 31%) ( P