[Short PQ interval with particular reference to the Lown-Ganong-Levine syndrome (author's transl)]

The ST length and T wave were investigated electrocardiographically and clinically in 200 patients with a short PQ interval in the electrocardiogram, independent of the length and shape of the QRS complex. In group A (Lown-Ganong-Syndrome LGL), we often found a narrow, pointed, positive P wave and a narrow QRS complex in the electrocardiogram in addition to the short PQ interval, and also a tendency to respiratory arrhythmia. Clinically this was frequently a matter of young women with a tendency to paroxysmal tachycardia and autonomic dystonia. A James bundle or even a short AV conduction pathway with a small heart might be considered as the origin of this LGL syndrome. A particular classification of patients with short PQ intervals and S-T deformation (Group B) in organic heart disease has not yet been described in the literature to our knowledge. The results of our investigations in group C (WPW syndrome) correspond in the main to those given in the literature.