Abstract
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) represents a significant portion of all cardiac deaths. Current guidelines focus mainly on left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) as the main criterion for SCD risk stratification and management. However, LVEF alone lacks both sensitivity and specificity in stratifying patients. Recent research has provided interesting data which supports a greater role for advanced cardiac imaging in risk stratification and patient management. In this article, we will focus on nuclear cardiac imaging, including left ventricular function assessment, myocardial perfusion imaging, myocardial blood flow quantification, metabolic imaging, and neurohormonal imaging. We will discuss how these can be used to better understand SCD and better stratify patient with both ischemic and non-ischemic cardiomyopathy.
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Abbreviations
- CFR:
-
Coronary flow reserve
- CS:
-
Cardiac sarcoidosis
- DCM:
-
Dilated cardiomyopathy
- HCM:
-
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- H/M:
-
Heart-to-mediastinum ratio
- MBF:
-
Myocardial blood flow
- MPI:
-
Myocardial perfusion imaging
- SDS:
-
Sum difference score
- SRS:
-
Sum rest score
- SSS:
-
Sum stress score
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Acknowledgments
RSB is a career investigator supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, a Tier 1 Research Chair supported by the University of Ottawa, and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute Vered Chair in Cardiology. DJ is a Cardiac Imaging Fellow at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute supported by a grant from the CHUM and CHUM Foundation. JK is supported by the Centre of Excellence of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease, Academy of Finland.
Disclosures
RSB is or has been a consultant for and receives grant funding from GE Healthcare, Lantheus Medical Imaging, and Jubilant DraxImage. TDR receives research grant funding from GE Healthcare, Advanced Accelerator Applications, and AstraZeneca. BJC holds the Saul and Edna Goldfarb Chair in Cardiac Imaging Research. He receives research support from GE Healthcare and educational support from TeraRecon Inc. JK has been a consultant of Lantheus Medical Imaging and received a grant from CardiRad Inc.
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Juneau, D., Erthal, F., Chow, B.J.W. et al. The role of nuclear cardiac imaging in risk stratification of sudden cardiac death. J. Nucl. Cardiol. 23, 1380–1398 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12350-016-0599-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12350-016-0599-8