Pre-procedural image-guided versus non-image-guided ventricular tachycardia ablation—a review

Background Magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography in patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT) after myocardial infarction (MI) helps to delineate scar from healthy tissue. Image-guided VT ablation has not yet been studied on a large scale. Objective The aim of the meta-analysis was to compare the long-term outcome of image-guided VT ablation with a conventional approach for VT after MI. Methods Eight electronic bibliographic databases were searched to identify all relevant studies from 2012 until 2018. The search for scientific literature was performed for studies that described the outcome of VT ablation in patients with an ischaemic substrate. The outcome of image-guided ablation was compared with the outcome of conventional ablations. Results Of the 2990 citations reviewed for eligibility, 38 articles—enrolling a total of 7748 patients—were included into the meta-analysis. Five articles included patients with image-guided ablation. VT-free survival was 82% [74–90] in the image-guided VT ablation versus 59% [54–64] in the conventional ablation group ( p