Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation in Non-ischemic Cardiomyopathy

Abstract

Non-ischemic cardiomyopathies are a heterogeneous group of diseases of the myocardium that have a distinct proclivity to ventricular arrhythmias. Of these, ventricular tachycardias pose significant management challenges with the risk of sudden cardiac death and morbidity from multiple causes. Catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardias is becoming an increasingly utilised intervention that has been found to have significant benefits with improving symptoms, reducing anti-arrhythmic drug burden and debilitating device therapies, thereby improving quality of life. Nonetheless, the approach to the ablation of ventricular tachycardias in non-ischemic cardiomyopathies is governed heavily by the disease process, with several distinct differences from ischemic cardiomyopathy including a preponderance to epicardial and deep intramural substrate. This contemporary review aims to present the various disease processes within non-ischemic cardiomyopathies, catheter ablation techniques which have been developed to target ventricular tachycardia and more novel adjunctive therapeutic measures.

Keywords: Cardiomyopathies; Catheter ablation; Ventricular tachycardia.