Faculty Opinions recommendation of Incidence of abnormal positron emission tomography in patients with unexplained cardiomyopathy and ventricular arrhythmias: The potential role of occult inflammation in arrhythmogenesis.

Abstract

Considerable research and clinical effort has been focused in recent years on the development of diagnostic modalities and imaging tools to identify the arrhythmogenic substrate responsible for ventricular tachycardia (VT) (focal or scar), genetic screening for markers of channelopathies, and superior mapping and ablation technologies. These advances have allowed us to tailor our approach to ventricular arrhythmia (VA) management based on the underlying etiology with higher efficacy. This study showed that in patients with VT due to a local (myocarditis, arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia [ARVD]) or systemic inflammatory condition (e.g. sarcoidosis), fluorine-18 fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (18-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET/CT) could identify patients who may benefit from early immunosuppressive therapy versus catheter ablation. This Recommendation is of an article referenced in an F1000 Faculty Review also written by Syeda Atiqa Batul, Brian Olshansky, John D. Fisher, and Rakesh Gopinathannair.