[Risk stratification in patients with Brugada syndrome]

Brugada syndrome (BrS), one of the most frequently diagnosed inherited arrhythmogenic syndromes, is responsible for more than 4% of all sudden deaths and at least 20% of sudden deaths in patients with structurally normal hearts. The sudden death is often the first symptom of BrS and appears most often already during the fourth decade of life of BrS patients. Implantation of cardioverter--defibrillator was proved to be the only effective treatment, i.e. prevention of the sudden death, in BrS. Thus, it is uniquely determined to be used in case of symptomatic BrS patients. On the contrary, the individual risk of life-threatening arrhythmias has to be thoroughly considered in case of asymptomatic BrS patients due to substantial side effects of implantation of cardioverter-defibrillator. This review first provides a summary of factors recommended for the risk stratification in BrS patients in 2005 including their support or rejection in the following studies. Subsequently, we focused on the most important risk factors newly suggested after 2005.