Electrophysiological abnormalities precede overt structural changes in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy due to mutations in desmoplakin-A combined murine and human study

Desmoplakin disease causes connexin mislocalization in the mouse and man preceding any overt histological abnormalities resulting in significant alterations in conduction-repolarization kinetics prior to morphological changes detectable on conventional cardiac imaging. Haploinsufficiency of desmoplakin is sufficient to cause significant Cx43 mislocalization. Changes in sodium current density and histological abnormalities may contribute to a worsening phenotype or disease but are not necessary to generate an arrhythmogenic substrate. This has important implications for the earlier diagnosis of ARVC and risk stratification.