Amano Y, Iso K, Suzuki Y, Tachi M. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging contributing to primary prevention and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death: Contemporary usefulness and limitations. World J Radiol 2025; 17(7): 107140 [DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v17.i7.107140]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Yasuo Amano, MD, Professor, Department of Radiology, Nihon University Hospital, Kandasurugadai 1-6, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 1018309, Japan. yas-amano@nifty.com
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Radiol. Jul 28, 2025; 17(7): 107140 Published online Jul 28, 2025. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v17.i7.107140
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging contributing to primary prevention and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death: Contemporary usefulness and limitations
Yasuo Amano, Department of Radiology, Nihon University Hospital, Tokyo 1018309, Japan
Kazuki Iso, Yasuyuki Suzuki, Department of Cardiology, Nihon University Hospital, Tokyo 1018309, Japan
Masaki Tachi, Department of Radiology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo 1138603, Japan
Author contributions: Amano Y involved in conceptualization and writing; Amano Y, Iso K, Suzuki Y, and Tachi M contributed to the data collection; Iso K, Suzuki Y, and Tachi M participated in the revision. All authors approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yasuo Amano, MD, Professor, Department of Radiology, Nihon University Hospital, Kandasurugadai 1-6, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 1018309, Japan. yas-amano@nifty.com
Received: March 17, 2025 Revised: April 2, 2025 Accepted: June 10, 2025 Published online: July 28, 2025 Processing time: 131 Days and 8 Hours
Abstract
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is one of the most devastating sequelae of myocardial diseases and can be the initial symptom in younger athletes or middle-aged businesspeople. An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) prevents SCD and dramatically reduces the arrhythmic events in these patients; hence, the risk stratification for the SCD is important. In survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, identification of its etiologies is required to select the appropriate treatments following ICD installation. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is useful for evaluating the morphology and function of the heart and for tissue characterization, MRI can therefore be used to stratify the risk of SCD associated with various myocardial diseases and leads to primary prevention using ICD. MRI can predict arrhythmic events, which suggest the progression of myocardial damage, following secondary prevention. In this review, we provide a clinical and MRI focused update and MRI protocol for the primary and secondary prevention of SCD. We summarize the contribution and limitations of cardiac MRI for prevention SCD using ICD implantation.
Core Tip: Sudden cardiac death can be prevented by implantable cardioverter defibrillator installation based on appropriate risk stratification. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging may contribute to the primary and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death because it can be used to evaluate the tissue characterization and predict arrhythmic events after implantable cardioverter defibrillator installation.
