Three patients in whom permanent AV reentrant tachycardia became the clinical manifestation of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome are described. The substrate for the arrhythmia was created by coexistence of a concealed left-sided accessory pathway and an ipsilateral bundle branch block. Pharmacologic therapy in all three patients failed to control the tachycardia, which in two cases led to severe left ventricular failure. After successful radiofrequency ablation of the accessory pathway (in two) or AV junction (in one), left ventricular function gradually returned to normal.