We are honored to have participated in a recent must-read publication by Dr. Matthijs Cluitmans published in Science Translational Medicine. In this work, Matthijs provided new insights into the determinants of ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VT/VF) in structurally normal hearts. In particular, explanted heart studies combined with computational modeling and electrocardiographic imaging of survivors of idiopathic VF revealed that the steepness of repolarization time gradients, the size of different repolarization regions, and the timing and location of premature beats relative to the gradients contribute to idiopathic VF development. These exciting new insights may have important implications for risk assessment and future treatment of patients at risk for VT/VF and sudden cardiac death.

Reference: Cluitmans MJM, Bear LR, Nguyên UC, van Rees B, Stoks J, Ter Bekke RMA, Mihl C, Heijman J, Lau KD, Vigmond E, Bayer J, Belterman CNW, Abell E, Labrousse L, Rogier J, Bernus O, Haïssaguerre M, Hassink RJ, Dubois R, Coronel R, Volders PGA. Noninvasive detection of spatiotemporal activation-repolarization interactions that prime idiopathic ventricular fibrillation. Sci Transl Med. 2021 Nov 17;13(620):eabi9317. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abi9317.