Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy

Abstract

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is a heart muscle disease of unknown etiology characterized by fatty or fibrofatty infiltration of the right ventricular myocardium. It is well known that ARVC is one of the important causes of sudden death in young individuals. The significant pathological change of ARVC is atrophy and fibrofatty myocardial replacement of the right ventricular free wall. According to the histopathological substrate ARVC could be divided into 2 types: fatty and fibrofatty myocardial replacement. Possible etiology including: (1) apoptosis or programmed cell death; (2) inflammatory; (3) myocardium dysplasia and (4) myocyte transdifferentiation theory.