Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Autoimmune bradyarrhythmias

The autoimmune pathogenesis of cardiac conduction system disease is reviewed here (European Heart Journal 2001). The well known association between congenital heart block and maternal antinuclear antibodies (SSA/Ro and SSB/La) is discussed. Less well appreciated conditions are antibodies to sino-atrial node and atrio-ventricular node tissues and their clinical associations with bradycardia, sick sinus syndrome and heart block and the increased incidence of AV block in HLA B-27 positive individuals.

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