The Significance of Cardiac Extrasystoles in Childhood

Of the various arrhythmias encountered in the heart beat during childhood, that known as extrasystole is probably the least well understood. We find articles dealing with heart block, fibrillation, paroxysmal tachycardia and sinus arrhythmia, but there is very little in the literature dealing with the subject of extrasystole. In adults this particular form of irregularity is not uncommon; in fact, when one sees the table of age incidence of extrasystole given by Cowan and Ritchie, 1 one realizes that the condition is least common in childhood, comparatively rare below the age of 40, and not at all infrequent following that. Out of a total of 226 cases of extrasystole, only seven were present in individuals between the ages of 10 and 20, and none below the age of 10. This seeming rarity of the condition in childhood is only apparent, for if we deal with statistics concerning children only, we