Ventricular Arrhythmias and the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death

1. Preamble
2. Introduction
2.1 Structure of the guidelines
3. Definitions, epidemiology and future perspectives for the
prevention of sudden cardiac death
3.1 Epidemiology of sudden cardiac death
3.2 Indications for autopsy and molecular autopsy in sudden death victims
3.3 Risk prediction of sudden cardiac death
3.4 Prevention of sudden cardiac death in special settings
4. Therapies for ventricular arrhythmias
4.1 Treatment of underlying heart disease
4.2 Pharmacotherapy for ventricular arrhythmia and prevention of sudden cardiac death
4.3 Device therapy
4.4 Cardioversion or defibrillation and acute treatment of sustained ventricular arrhythmias
4.5 Interventional therapy
4.6 Psychosocial impact of implantable cardioverter defibrillator treatment
5. Management of ventricular arrhythmias and prevention of sudden cardiac death in coronary artery disease
5.1 Acute coronary syndromes
5.2 Early after myocardial infarction
5.3 Stable coronary artery disease after myocardial infarction with preserved ejection fraction
6. Therapies for patients with left ventricular dysfunction, with or without heart failure
6.1 Primary prevention of sudden cardiac death
6.2 Premature ventricular complexes in patients with structural heart disease/left ventricular dysfunction
6.3 Sustained ventricular tachycardia
7. Cardiomyopathies
7.1 Dilated cardiomyopathy
7.2 Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
7.3 Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy  
7.4 Infiltrative cardiomyopathies
7.5 Restrictive cardiomyopathy
7.6 Other cardiomyopathies
8. Inherited primary arrhythmia syndromes
8.1 Long QT syndrome
8.2 Short QT syndrome
8.3 Brugada syndrome
8.4 Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia
8.5 Early repolarization syndrome
9. Paediatric arrhythmias and congenital heart disease
9.1 Management of ventricular arrhythmias in children with a structurally normal heart
9.2 Sudden cardiac death and ventricular arrhythmias in patients with congenital heart disease
9.3 Implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy in paediatric patients
10. Ventricular tachycardias and ventricular fibrillation in structurally normal hearts
10.1 Outflow tract ventricular tachycardias
10.2 Ventricular tachycardias of miscellaneous origin
10.3 Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation
10.4 Short-coupled torsade de pointes
11. Inflammatory, rheumatic and valvular heart diseases
11.1 Myocarditis
11.2 Endocarditis
11.3 Rheumatic heart disease .
11.4 Pericarditis
11.5 Cardiac sarcoidosis
11.6 Valvular heart disease
12. Arrhythmic risk in selected populations
12.1 Psychiatric patients
12.1.1 Epidemiology
12.1.2 Diagnosis
12.1.3 Treatment
12.2 Neurological patients
12.3 Pregnant patients
12.4 Obstructive sleep apnoea
12.5 Drug-related pro-arrhythmia  
12.6 Sudden cardiac death after heart transplantation
12.7 Sudden cardiac death in athletes
12.8 Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome
12.9 Prevention of sudden cardiac death in the elderly
12.10 End-of-life issues
13. Gaps in evidence
14. To do and not to do messages from the guidelines