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© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death are frequent in patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy and can precede heart failure or additional symptoms where malignant cardiac arrhythmias are mostly the consequence of advanced cardiomyopathy and heart failure. Finding these subgroups and making an early diagnosis could be lifesaving. In our retrospective study, we are presenting arrhythmic types of frequent cardiomyopathies where an arrhythmogenic substrate is less well defined, as in ischemic or structural heart disease. In the period of 2 years, next-generation sequencing (NGS) tests along with standard clinical tests were performed in 208 patients (67 women and 141 men; mean age, 51.2 ± 19.4 years) without ischemic or an overt structural heart disease after syncope or aborted sudden cardiac death. Genetic variants were detected in 34.4% of the study population, with a significant proportion of pathogenic variants (P) (14.4%) and variants of unknown significance (VUS) (20%). Regardless of genotype, all patients were stratified according to clinical guidelines for aggressive treatment of sudden cardiac death with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). The P variant identified by NGS serves for an accurate diagnosis and, thus, better prevention and specific treatment of patients and their relatives. Results in our study suggest that targeted sequencing of genes associated with cardiovascular disease is an important addendum for final diagnosis, allowing the identification of a molecular genetic cause in a vast proportion of patients for a definitive diagnosis and a more specific way of treatment. VUS in this target population poses a high risk and should be considered possibly pathogenic in reanalysis.

Details

Title
The Role of Next-Generation Sequencing in the Management of Patients with Suspected Non-Ischemic Cardiomyopathy after Syncope or Termination of Sudden Arrhythmic Death
Author
Vokač, Damijan 1 ; Špela Stangler Herodež 2 ; Krgović, Danijela 2 ; Vokač, Nadja Kokalj 2 

 Department of Cardiology and Angiology, Division of Internal Medicine, University Medical Centre Maribor, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia; [email protected] 
 Clinical Institute for Genetic Diagnostics, University Medical Centre Maribor, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia; [email protected] (Š.S.H.); [email protected] (D.K.); Medical Faculty, University of Maribor, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia 
First page
72
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20734425
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2918747691
Copyright
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.