Gatzoulis KA, Tsiachris D, Arsenos P, Tousoulis D. Electrophysiologic testing guided risk stratification approach for sudden cardiac death beyond the left ventricular ejection fraction. World J Cardiol 2016; 8(1): 112-113 [PMID: 26839662 DOI: 10.4330/wjc.v8.i1.112]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Konstantinos A Gatzoulis, MD, Associate Professor of Cardiology, Director of EP Lab, First Cardiology Division, Hippokration Hospital, University of Athens, PO Box 175, 11527 Athens, Greece. kgatzoul@med.uoa.gr
Research Domain of This Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Article-Type of This Article
Letters To The Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Cardiol. Jan 26, 2016; 8(1): 112-113 Published online Jan 26, 2016. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v8.i1.112
Electrophysiologic testing guided risk stratification approach for sudden cardiac death beyond the left ventricular ejection fraction
Konstantinos A Gatzoulis, Dimitris Tsiachris, Petros Arsenos, Dimitris Tousoulis
Konstantinos A Gatzoulis, Dimitris Tsiachris, Petros Arsenos, Dimitris Tousoulis, First Cardiology Division, Hippokration Hospital, University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Author contributions: Gatzoulis KA and Arsenos P wrote this letter; Tsiachris D and Tousoulis D revised the letter.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Gatzoulis KA received a supporting grand for PRESERVE EF study equipment by Medtronic and GE; Dr. Tsiachris D received grand from Medtronic; Dr. Arsenos P received research equipment support by Sorin; Dr. Tousoulis D has no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Konstantinos A Gatzoulis, MD, Associate Professor of Cardiology, Director of EP Lab, First Cardiology Division, Hippokration Hospital, University of Athens, PO Box 175, 11527 Athens, Greece. kgatzoul@med.uoa.gr
Telephone: +30-210-3644570
Received: July 17, 2015 Peer-review started: July 22, 2015 First decision: September 11, 2015 Revised: September 29, 2015 Accepted: November 3, 2015 Article in press: November 3, 2015 Published online: January 26, 2016 Processing time: 188 Days and 11.8 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: There is a growing need for more effective risk stratification approach in order to detect those post myocardial infarction and dilated cardiomyopathy patients at high risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD) at early or even asymptomatic stage of heart failure with relatively well preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Although in an individual basis the SCD risk is lower among the patient population compared to the one observed among to those with a severely impaired LVEF, epidemiologically there is a large such patient pool at risk in the community. Based on preliminary evidence these patients could be effectively and timely identified by applying a combined electrophysiologic guided approach using non-invasive electrocardiogram-related markers of risk leading to programmed ventricular stimulation testing. Using this approach, we could select those with inducible ventricular tachyarrhythmias as suitable candidates for implantable defibrillator therapy.
