Are appropriate ICD shocks a surrogate for sudden cardiac death in patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy?
Appropriate ICD shocks may overestimate the true risk of sudden cardiac death in nonischemic cardiomyopathy due to the frequent spontaneous termination of ventricular tachycardia.
Appropriate ICD shocks occur more frequently than SCD in patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy. This suggests that episodes of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia frequently terminate spontaneously in such patients.
Ellenbogen et al. (2006) studied this question.
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