Groeneveld SA, van der Ree MH, Taha K, et al. - Researchers sought to determine echocardiographic deformation features in idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF) patients. They analyzed echocardiograms with deformation imaging via 2-dimensional speckle tracking. They also conducted global and regional measurements of the left ventricle (LV) and right ventricle (RV). They categorized regional RV deformation patterns as type I (normal) or type II/III (abnormal). This study included 47 IVF patients and 47 healthy controls. More global deformation abnormalities, as indicated by lower LV global longitudinal strain and higher LV mechanical dispersion, were found to be present in IVF patients. Also, more regional LV postsystolic shortening was detected in IVF patients vs healthy controls. Total 16% of IVF patients had abnormal RV deformation patterns, whereas such patterns were absent in controls. Overall, experts herein succeeded at demonstrating regional as well as global echocardiographic deformation abnormalities among IVF patients. Findings offer evidence for the presence of localized myocardial disease in a subset of IVF patients.