Heart rhythm : the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society
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Patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and aborted cardiac arrest are generally regarded as a high-risk subgroup susceptible to future major cardiac events and an unfavorable prognosis. However, outcome over extended time periods after major arrhythmic events is unresolved in such HCM patients. ⋯ In HCM, long-term survival up to 30 years may follow cardiac arrest with or without ICD intervention. Disabling heart failure symptoms were uncommon after these arrhythmic events, at last follow-up. These novel observations regarding the natural history of HCM underscore the unpredictability of the arrhythmogenic substrate, which may remain dormant over extended periods of time.