Comprehensive assessment of unexplained sudden cardiac death and idiopathic ventricular fibrillation during the index hospitalization: A systematic thorough investigation to unmask specific etiology

State-of-the-Art Multimodality Imaging in Sudden Cardiac Arrest with Focus on Idiopathic Ventricular Fibrillation: A Review

Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation is a rare cause of sudden cardiac arrest and a diagnosis by exclusion. Unraveling the mechanism of ventricular fibrillation is important for targeted management, and potentially for initiating family screening. Sudden cardiac arrest survivors undergo extensive clinical testing, with a growing role for multimodality imaging, before diagnosing “idiopathic” ventricular fibrillation. Multimodality imaging, considered as using multiple imaging modalities as diagnostics, is important for revealing structural myocardial abnormalities in patients with cardiac arrest. This review focuses on combining imaging modalities (echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance and computed tomography) and the electrocardiographic characterization of sudden cardiac arrest survivors and discusses the surplus value of multimodality imaging in the diagnostic routing of these patients. We focus on novel insights obtained through electrostructural and/or electromechanical imaging in apparently idiopathic ventricular fibrillation patients, with special attention to non-invasive electrocardiographic imaging.