Study Status: Terminated
Recruit Status: Terminated
Study Type: Observational
Official Title: Prolonged Monitoring to Detect Ventricular Arrhythmias in Presymptomatic ARVC Patients
Brief Summary:
Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is an inherited condition characterized by life threatening heart racing, presenting with palpitations, cardiac arrest (collapse requiring an ambulance) or sudden death. The disease affects the right ventricle, the part of the heart that pumps blood to the lungs. ARVC is diagnosed with a wide range of tests that focus on the pumping function and the electrical signals from the right ventricle. These factors are summarized in a score that forms the ARVC Task Force Criteria. Genetic testing has identified 5 different genes that lead to ARVC, which are detected in about 60% of patients with ARVC. This allows doctors to test family members of the patient with ARVC to determine if they are at risk of developing the condition. Currently, family members undergo testing that includes imaging and electrical tests such as a 24-hour monitor to determine if they have evidence of ARVC. With increasing frequency, family members are found to have the gene that may lead to ARVC, but little or no evidence that their hearts are affected. This may be because the family member is too young to develop the condition, or that other factors that we do not understand have protected them from developing it.
The PREPARE study will study 100 patients that carry a gene that can lead to ARVC, but do not have anything more than minor evidence that the condition is present. These patients will not have heart racing on their initial 24-hour monitor. These patients will undergo long term monitoring with an implanted heart monitor that is inserted with a minor surgical procedure, which will detect abnormal heart rhythms that may provide a clue that heart racing from ARVC is present that is not detected with a 24-hour monitor that is performed on an annual basis (St. Jude Confirm implantable loop recorder). These patients will be enrolled in 10 adult an