Reply: Histopathological and Immunological Characteristics of Tachycardia-Induced Cardiomyopathy

[...]our study describes a group of patients with severely impaired left ventricular function and pronounced heart failure symptoms, compared with the almost untainted study cohort described in the analysis of Dr. Wijesurendra and colleagues. To date, little is known about the (complete) reversibility of cardiomyopathies and their underlying mechanisms. [...]the absence of a complete normalization of left ventricular function arguments is not against the fact that arrhythmia alone could be the cause of cardiomyopathy and heart failure. For the detection of mild or clinically inapparent cardiomyopathies induced by rhythm disturbances, further studies using highly sophisticated analytical tools involving endomyocardial biopsies and distinct myocardial imaging are needed. 1 R.S. Wijesurendra, A. Liu, C. Eichhorn, Lone atrial fibrillation is associated with impaired left ventricular energetics that persists despite successful catheter ablation, Circulation, Vol. 134, 2016, 1068-1081 2 P. Seizer, K. Klingel, J. Stickel, Left ventricular site-directed biopsy guided by left ventricular voltage mapping: a proof of principle, Int J Cardiol, Vol. 168, 2013, 3113-3114 3 P. Elliott, Defining Tachycardia-Induced Cardiomyopathy: Life in the Fast Lane, J Am Coll Cardiol, Vol. 69, 2017, 2173-2174