[Persistent atrial paralysis: reported of 2 cases]

Persistent atrial standstill is an uncommon clinical finding, this condition has no atrial electrical activity and do not respond to electrical stimulation. Electrophysiologic mapping of the heart, demonstrates two types of standstill: total and partial. There are three types of patients with this condition: patients with chronic cardiopathy, patients with muscular dystrophy and the third idiopathic group. In this article, we present two clinical cases, the fist one with dilated cardiomiopathy, in which we demonstrated total atrial standstill. The second patient with rheumatic heart disease, in which we demonstrated partial standstill that included the apical portion of the rigth atrium. We discuss the clinical and electrophysiological finding of both cases and we review the literature.