Myocardial Scarring as Predictor of Death or ICD Discharge

The percentage of patients with the primary endpoint of death or appropriate ICD discharge is shown according to different levels of left ventricular ejection fraction (Panel a) and scar size (Panel b). For ejection fraction, the trendline (red line) shows a positive slope over the entire range, indicating that event rate monotonically increases with decreasing LVEF. In contrast, a marked step-up in event rate is noted for scar size greater than 5% of left ventricular mass, which however does not rise further with increasing scar size.

Reprinted from J Am Coll Cardiol, Vol. 60, Klem I et al., Assessment of Myocardial Scarring Improves Risk Stratification in Patients Evaluated for Cardiac Defibrillator Implantation, Pages No. 408-420, Copyright (2012), with permission from American College of Cardiology Foundation.