Non-invasive assessment of myocardial fibrosis: focus on the substrate of ventricular arrhythmias to improve risk stratification

Myocardial fibrosis is recognized as the main substrate for ventricular arrhythmias in patients with structural heart disease of different etiologies [1]. However, fibrosis assessment is not included in current strategies of risk stratification for sudden death. Instead, our decision to implant a primary prevention implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in patients with heart failure is mainly based on left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), a marker of disease severity and not of the arrhythmic risk.
Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: research