The bundle of Kent

The bundle of Kent is an accessory (pathological) bundle of cardiac muscle connecting the atria and ventricles. It is present, congenitally, only in a small number of people, in whom it is often the cause of premature activation of the ventricles - preexcitation. Physiologically, the atria and ventricles are connected only by the bundle of His.

The most common syndrome of ventricular preexcitation is Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome - WPW. It is a cardiac arrhythmia in which the excitation (wave of depolarization) propagates from the atria to the ventricles outside the AV node. The accessory pathway here is the bundle of Kent.

Related Articles

 * Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome
 * Lown-Ganong-Levine syndrome
 * Cardiac conduction system
 * Bundle branch blocks