EHRA White Paper: knowledge gaps in arrhythmia management-status 2019.

Clinicians accept that there are many unknowns when we make diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. Acceptance of uncertainty is essential for the pursuit of the profession: bedside decisions must often be made on the basis of incomplete evidence. Over the years, physicians sometimes even do not realize anymore which the fundamental gaps in our knowledge are.

[Electric channels, genetics and cardiac sudden death. Brugada syndrome as an example].

Since the introduction of molecular biology techniques hereditary diseases can be studied. These techniques allow us to locate the gene that causes a disease in a family. The identification of this gene not only permits to diagnose and potentially treat those affected by the abnormal gene, but also helps in a better understanding of the pathophysiology and molecular basis of non-familial forms of the disease.