Systematic review: Impact of the new task force criteria in the diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.
BACKGROUND
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is an inherited disorder of cardiac desmosomes associated with ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. The clinical diagnosis is problematic and relies on a complex criteria composed of clinical and non-clinical parameters. In 2010, the original 1994 Task Force Criteria (TFC) was revised with particular attention given to the imaging parameters.


METHODS
Five retrospective studies compared the diagnostic concordance between the 1994 and 2010 TFC. Three studies used cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and compared major and minor CMR criteria and three studies compared definite ARVC cases; one study assessed both.


RESULTS
Three studies with 1435 patients compared the 1994 imaging and the 2010 CMR criteria. Using the 1994 criteria, 123 (8.6%) and 419 (29.2%) patients satisfied major and minor criteria compared to only 52 (3.6%) and 28 (1.9%) using the 2010 criteria; 57.7% and 94.3% reduction in major and minor criteria (p value, 0.0001 and 0.0001). Three studies with 611 patients assessed for definite ARVC. Using the 1994 and 2010 criteria, 207 (33.9%) and 243 (39.8%) patients satisfied the parameters respectively. This resulted in a statistically significant 17.4% (p value, 0.0379) increase in ARVC cases driven largely by two sub-groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The 2010 revised TFC have resulted in a significant reduction in the number of patients that satisfy CMR criteria particularly those that satisfied minor imaging abnormalities using the 1994 criteria. In addition, in certain groups the revised criteria have significantly increased the number of patients diagnosed with definite ARVC.
Department of Cardiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia; Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: femia82@gmail.com.
Giuseppe
G
Femia
Department of Cardiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia; Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia.
Raymond W
RW
Sy
Department of Cardiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia; Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia.
Rajesh
R
Puranik
D026683:Advisory Committees / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D019571:Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D012189:Retrospective Studies
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy; Cardiac magnetic resonance; Task force criteria; Two-dimensional echocardiography