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Cardiomyopathies

New test for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy

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Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) is challenging to diagnose because of nonspecific findings, particularly in the early phases of the disease. Clinical diagnosis is made on the basis of several criteria, but these lack sensitivity. Asimaki et al. suggest that immunohistochemical analysis of myocardial desmosomal proteins is a highly sensitive and specific diagnostic test for ARVD/C.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of the cardiac desmosome showing the major proteins involved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    J. Peter van Tintelen

  2. Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Richard N. W. Hauer

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  1. J. Peter van Tintelen
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  2. Richard N. W. Hauer
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Correspondence to J. Peter van Tintelen.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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van Tintelen, J., Hauer, R. New test for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Nat Rev Cardiol 6, 450–451 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2009.97

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