Wenckebach's phenomenon
Related people
A sequence of cardiac cycles in the electrocardiogram. It is a form of incomplete atrio-ventricular heart block in which there is progressive lengthening of conduction time in cardiac tissue with P-R interval increasing until there is not a ventricular response. This is followed by a conducted beat with a short P-R interval, and then the cycle repeats itself. This occurs frequently after an inferior myocardial infarction and tends to be self-limiting.
Luigi Luciani worked in by Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig's (1816-1895) laboratory in Leipzig when he was the first to demonstrate cardiac group beating, which he named periodic rhythm. In 1898 Wenckebach studied a patient who had unexplained irregular pulse due to cardiac group beating. This was the first description of the phenomenon i man.
Bibliography
- L. Luciani:
Eine periodische Function des isolirten Froschherzens.
[On the Periodic Function of the Isolated Frog Heart]
Berichte über die Verhandlungen der königlichen sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig; mathematisch-physische Klasse, 1873, 25: 11. - K. F. Wenckebach:
De Analyse van den onregelmatigen Pols. III. Over eenige Vormen van Allorythmie en Bradykardie.
Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde, Amsterdam, 1898, 2: 1132. Zur Analyse des unregelmässigen Pulses.
Zeitschrift für klinische Medizin, 1899, 36: 181-199. - C.B. Upshaw Jr, M.E. Silverman:
The Wenckeback phenomenon: A salute and comment on the centennial of its original description.
Annals of Internal Medicine, Philadelphia, 1999, 130: 58–63.