Progressive familial heart block type I : clinical and pathological observations

Abstract
Progressive familial heart block type I (PFHB-I) is an autosomal inherited disease. It was previously postulated that the disease is limited to the cardiac conduction tissue. The presentation of a patient with dilated cardiomyopathy focused on the possibility that this might be part of PFHB-I. This observation led to routine echocardiographic examination of patients with complete heart block, who belonged to PFHB-I families, and another 5 cases with signs of dilated cardiomyopathy were identified. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that the histological picture of PFHB-I has been described. From these case reports it is clear that in the presence of a dilated cardiomyopathy the prognosis in PFHB-I tends to be poor.
Description
CITATION: 1991: .Van der Merwe, P.-L. et al. 1991. Progressive familial heart block type I : clinical and pathological observations. South African Medical Journal, 80:34-38.
The original publication is available at http://www.samj.org.za
Keywords
Heart -- Abnormalities
Citation