Novel Approaches to Risk Assessment for Ventricular Tachycardia Induction and Therapy

AbstractPurpose of ReviewVentricular tachycardia (VT) is a significant cause of cardiac sudden death (SCD) in various cardiomyopathy diseases. The following review will focus on the role of cardiac imaging in risk assessment for VT induction and novel technique and evidence regarding VT therapy including VT ablation and implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) therapy.Recent FindingsIn regard to VT risk stratification, characterizing VT substrate by cardiac imaging including cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), multidetector computed tomography (MDCT), and positron-emission tomography (PET) has a significant role in predicting mortality and ventricular arrhythmic events. Integrating cardiac imaging with electroanatomic mapping can act synergistically on improving VT ablation. Moreover, recently developed novel ablation technologies such as bipolar ablation (BPA) and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) can be potentially beneficial to patients with VTs that are not responding to conventional treatment strategies. Besides, the effectiveness of novel concept of antitachycardia pacing (ATP), automated ATP, has been reported by using virtual patient modeling recently.SummaryRisk stratification for future VT episodes is significantly important to timely select ICD candidates for patients with cardiomyopathy, and cardiac imaging can play a distinct role in this process. Novel and less invasive VT mapping, ablation techniques, and newly developed adaptive pacing techniques can help us ...
Source: Current Cardiovascular Risk Reports - Category: Cardiology Source Type: research