Atrial Tachyarrhythmia With Short Pr Interval

Brodsky et al. (1977) described a family in which a short PR interval in the electrocardiogram occurred in members in 3 generations with male-to-male transmission. Several members of the family with short PR had paroxysmal or chronic atrial fibrillation or paroxysmal atrial tachycardia from an early age. Five members of the family had short PR intervals but had not yet shown tachyarrhythmia. The proband, aged 18, had left ventricular dysfunction during paroxysmal atrial tachycardia. Both were reversed with administration of digoxin and propranolol. This condition may represent a variant of the Lown-Ganong-Levine syndrome; several affected relatives were described but not studied extensively in the original report (Lown et al., 1952). Noting the evidence for genetic factors in atrioventricular conduction time (108980), one wonders whether the affected persons in the family of Brodsky et al. (1977) represented a 'tail' of the distribution for a multifactorial trait. Two families with multiple generations affected by late-onset, chronic atrial fibrillation in the absence of organic heart disease may represent a related disorder (Gould, 1957; Phair, 1963). The Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (194200) is another syndrome of short PR interval with proneness to supraventricular tachycardia.