Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy: a family affair.

Has referral for genetic evaluation of inherited cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias become a routine part of your clinical practice yet? After several decades of molecular genetic research into the causes of inherited forms of heart disease, the field of cardiovascular genetics is rapidly growing. The pace of progress has accelerated even further in the setting of remarkable technologies that have lowered the costs and increased the speed with which gene sequencing can be performed. Two articles in the curent issue of Circulation point out both the benefits and challenges that are inherent in this evolving new era of genetic characterization as applied to arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C), with particular attention to how this condition runs in families.1,2