Arrhythmias in a Hall of Mirrors: Pediatric Heterotaxy Syndromes

Heterotaxy comes from the Greek words heteros, meaning “other than” and taxis, meaning “arrangement”. It is thought to be caused by an embryological failure to differentiate along the right-left axis and can impact the thoracic and abdominal visceral organs. There are several different classification schemes which are beyond the scope of this co mmentary, but in short they can be divided generally into “asplenia/polysplenia”, “right atrial isomerism/left atrial isomerism” based on morphology of the atrial appendages, and those that are not clearly mirror-image reflections of the right and left sidedness, simply stated as “heterota xy” or “indeterminate”.
Source: Heart Rhythm - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: research