Image-Based Prediction of Ventricular Tachycardias in Post-Myocarditis Patients: an International Multicenter Case-control Study

Ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) are frequently associated with structural heart diseases (SHD) such as myocardial infarction, myocarditis, and non-ischemic cardiomyopathies. Myocardial fibrotic tissue plays a central role in the genesis and the maintenance of re-entrant VAs associated with post-myocarditis sequelae and late gadolinium enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance (LGE-CMR) has proven to be a useful tool for the non-invasive characterization of the scarred tissue and the underlying arrhythmogenic substrate. Moreover, a post-processing imaging platform named ADAS 3D LV (ADAS3D Medical SL, Barcelona, Spain) allows to analyze the CMR-derived data and to characterize the scar architecture, differentiating between dense (scar core zone) and more diffuse (border zone \[BZ\]) fibrosis, and identifying the BZ channels (BZCs) that are strands of healthy myocardial tissue within zones of unexcitable tissue and connect areas of normal myocardium. It was described that BZCs could serve as slow-conducting reentrant pathways and are critical to entail VA in ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease. However, the pathophysiological role and the correlation between scar architecture and VAs in post-myocarditis patients is yet to be defined. To date, the standard-of-care evaluation for primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy is LVEF-based, leading to the fact that the contemporary rate of appropriated therapies is very low. Moreover, events may also occur in patients with normal to moderately depressed LVEF, which is particularly relevant, as it constitutes the most prevalent population of patients exposed to an increased risk of VAs. Multiple studies reported that LGE at CMR is a strong and specific predictor of VT occurrence and sudden death in post-myocarditis patients. There were reported cases in which even after the normalization of LVEF, the extension of LGE, the scar architecture, and the presence of BZCs at cMR analysis are determinants