bundle of Kent

This accessory pathway is known as the bundle of Kent (see below).

When an aberrant electrical connection is made via the bundle of Kent, tachydysrhythmias may therefore result.

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (in which the accessory pathway is referred to as the "bundle of Kent")

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is a relatively common abnormality with an accessory pathway, the Bundle of Kent crossing the AV valvular ring.

The AV node is capable of slowing the rate of conduction of electrical impulses to the ventricles, whereas the bundle of Kent lacks this capability.

The bundle of Kent is an abnormal extra or accessory conduction pathway between the atria and ventricles that is present in a small percentage (between 0.1% and 0.3%) of the general population.

Electrical signals travelling down this abnormal pathway (known as the bundle of Kent) may stimulate the ventricles to contract prematurely, resulting in a unique type of supraventricular tachycardia referred to as an atrioventricular reciprocating tachycardia.

The bundle of Kent is eponymously named for British physiologist Albert Frank Stanley Kent (1863-1958), who described lateral branches in the atrioventricular groove of the monkey heart (erroneously believing these constituted the normal atrioventricular conduction system).

However, in individuals with a pre-existing accessory conduction pathway, such as the bundle of Kent in Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, the accessory pathway may conduct activity from the atria to the ventricles at a rate that the AV node would usually block.