{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T06:00:09Z","timestamp":1777528809084,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,10,10]],"date-time":"2020-10-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1602288000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/journals\/pages\/open_access\/funder_policies\/chorus\/standard_publication_model"}],"funder":[{"name":"Swiss National Foundation","award":["(PZ00P3_180055"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["(PZ00P3_180055"]}]},{"name":"Mayo Clinic Windland Smith Rice Comprehensive Sudden Cardiac Death Program"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,27]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>Prior to the recognition of distinct clinical entities, such as Brugada syndrome, catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, and long QT syndrome, all sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) survivors with ventricular fibrillation (VF) and apparently structurally normal hearts were labelled as idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF). Over the last three decades, the definition of IVF has changed substantially, mostly as result of the identification of the spectrum of SCA-predisposing genetic heart diseases (GHDs), and the molecular evidence, by post-mortem genetic analysis (aka, the molecular autopsy), of cardiac channelopathies as the pathogenic basis for up to 35% of unexplained cases of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the young. The evolution of the definition of IVF over time has led to a progressively greater awareness of the need for an extensive diagnostic assessment in unexplained SCA survivors. Nevertheless, GHDs are still underdiagnosed among SCA survivors, due to the underuse of pharmacological challenges (i.e. sodium channel blocker test), misrecognition of electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities\/patterns (i.e. early repolarization pattern or exercise-induced ventricular bigeminy) or errors in the measurement of ECG parameters (e.g. the heart-rate corrected QT interval). In this review, we discuss the epidemiology, diagnostic approaches, and the controversies related to role of the genetic background in unexplained SCA survivors with a default diagnosis of IVF.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/europace\/euaa211","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,3]],"date-time":"2020-07-03T19:27:29Z","timestamp":1593804449000},"page":"4-10","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation: the ongoing quest for diagnostic refinement"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2248-3456","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giulio","family":"Conte","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Cardiology, Cardiocentro Ticino, via Tesserete 48, 6900, Lugano, Switzerland"},{"name":"Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, USI, Lugano, Switzerland"},{"name":"Centre for Computational Medicine in Cardiology, Faculty of Informatics, Universit\u00e0 della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"John R","family":"Giudicessi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiovascular Medicine (Clinician-Investigator Training Program), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA"},{"name":"Division of Heart Rhythm Services, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Windland Smith Rice Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA"},{"name":"Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA"},{"name":"Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michael J","family":"Ackerman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiovascular Medicine (Clinician-Investigator Training Program), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA"},{"name":"Division of Heart Rhythm Services, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Windland Smith Rice Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA"},{"name":"Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA"},{"name":"Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,10,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"2021012818045794500_euaa211-B1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1389","DOI":"10.1093\/europace\/eut272","article-title":"HRS\/EHRA\/APHRS expert consensus statement on the diagnosis and management of patients with inherited primary arrhythmia syndromes: document endorsed by HRS, EHRA, and APHRS in May 2013 and by ACCF, AHA, PACES, and AEPC in June 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