Prediction of ARrhythmic Events With Positron Emission Tomography II

Sudden cardiac death continues to be a major contributor to mortality in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy. While implantable defibrillators can prevent death from ventricular arrhythmias, our current approach to identify patients at highest risk primarily rests on demonstrating a reduction in left ventricular ejection fraction less than 35%. The purpose of this observational cohort study is to prospectively test whether this can be enhanced by quantifying the amount of sympathetic denervation, left ventricular end-diastolic volume or brain natriuretic peptide levels.