What Aspects of Phenotype Determine Risk for Sudden Cardiac Death in Pediatric Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy?

Sudden cardiac death due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), is the most common autopsy-proven cause of unexpected medical death in children after infancy. This mode of death is preventable by implantation of an internal cardiac defibrillator (ICD), a procedure that has considerable morbidity in childhood patients, and even mortality. Since HCM is an inheritable disease (usually autosomal dominant, occasionally recessive), family screening may identify subjects at risk. This review summarizes published studies carried out to identify which phenotypic markers are important risk factors in childhood patients with HCM and reviews the performance of existing risk-stratification algorithms (HCM Risk-Kids, PRIMaCY) against those of single phenotypic markers. A significant proportion of HCM-patients diagnosed in childhood are associated with RASopathies such as Noonan syndrome, but a knowledge gap exists over risk stratification in this patient group. In conclusion, pediatric risk-stratification algorithms for sudden cardiac death perform better in children than adult HCM risk-stratification strategies. However, current multivariable algorithms overestimate risk substantially without having high sensitivity, and remain ‘a work in progress’. To include additional phenotypic parameters that can be reproducibly measured such as ECG-markers, e.g., ECG risk score (which has high sensitivity and negative predictive value), tissue Doppler diastolic function measurements, and quantification of myocardial scarring on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, has the potential to improve risk-stratification algorithms. Until that work has been achieved, these are three factors that the clinician can combine with the current algorithm-calculated per cent risk, in order better to assess risk.