Special outpatient clinic for ARVC patients

A special outpatient clinic for ARVC patients has been established in the Clinic for Cardiology of the University Hospital Zurich on a regular basis since June 2011. Our goal is to optimize the interdisciplinary team-work for complex cases, state-of-the-art imaging, optimal therapy for progressive disease, ICD-therapy, catheter ablations and genetic testing and counseling.

Our ARVC outpatient clinic focuses on patients with right ventricular, but also left ventricular arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathies as well as their healthy relatives. Our team consists of electrophysiologists (board certified cardiologists with a special training in cardiac arrhythmias), specialists in cardiac imaging, heart failure, heart transplantation and cardiogeneticists. This gives us the possibility for a multidisciplinary diagnostic and therapeutic approach to our patients.

Our ARVC outpatient clinic at the University Hospital Zurich is not supposed to replace patient care provided by general practitioners or cardiologists in private practice, but should be rather considered as an additional tool to obtain a second opinion for patients with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathies. Furthermore, we offer genetic testing and genetic counseling for families by experienced geneticists that may not be provided in private practice.

The following diagnostic tests are offered by our multidisciplinary team. Not all of these tests will be necessary in every patient. Some of them are useful for planning an intervention while others are useful for evaluation of the patient’s clinical course or evaluating ongoing therapies:
- 12-lead surface ECG
- Signal-averaged ECG
- 24-/48-h Holter ECG
- 7-days ECG
- Loop Recorder
- ICD implantation and ICD follow-up
- Stress test (bicycle or treadmill)
- Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography
- Computer tomography and magnetic resonance tomography (CMR)
- PET-scintigraphy
- Right ventricular angiography
- Electrophysiologic study with electroanatomical 3-D mapping and endomyocardial biopsy
- Laboratory analysis
- Cardiogenetics

Collaboration with our colleagues

If a patient is included in one of our prospective studies or registry, she/he will profit from our expertise, our modern imaging facilities and if necessary, further invasive tests such as electrophysiological study or right ventricular angiography. Test results will be conveyed to the referring physician without time delay.

We are thankful for sending us clinical and echocardiographic follow-up reports, ECGs and reports from ICD interrogations. This is important for us so that we can keep our registry data updated. If you have seen a patient with suspected ARVC in your practice, please do not hesitate to contact us.