Assessment of Risk for Sudden Cardiac Death in Patients With Dilative

Introduction Non-ischaemic dilative cardiomyopathy (DCM) and coronary artery disease (CAD) are the most common heart diseases of those associated with an increased risk for sudden cardiac death. Combining classical tools of risk stratification like the HolterECG, electrophysiological stimulation and the evaluation of left ventricular function enables us, at least in CAD patients, to identify candidates who may profit from prophylactic antiarrhythmic therapy (primary prevention) [1]. However, new methods are searched that are more effective in CAD patients, and are also able to guide antiarrhythmic therapy in DCM patients in which the classical risk stratifiers cannot predict the risk of sudden death with adequate accuracy [2, 3]. As the course of myocardial repolarisation seems to be essential in the genesis of malignant arrhythmias, some techniques concentrate on regional or temporal differences of the t-wave in the electrocardiogram [4, 5]. Using multi-channel magnetocardiographic