Diagnosis of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy: 20 years of progress and innovation

Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (CMA) is a cardiac disease characterized by non-ischemic ventricular scarring and electrical instability. The diagnosis of CMA still remains challenging today and requires the use of a set of criteria, since no single diagnostic test represents the gold standard. The first diagnostic criteria were defined and disseminated in 1994 and then revised in 2010, focusing mainly on right ventricular involvement. In 2019, an international panel of experts identified the limitations of the previous diagnostic criteria. The 2020 Padua criteria included a specific pathway for the diagnosis of left ventricular variants and emphasized the need for the use of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in the characterization of myocardial scarring. These criteria were further refined and published in 2023 as European Task Force (TF) criteria, thus gaining international recognition. Exploring the history of CMA and its diagnosis, in this review we analyze the changes and progress...