Document Review and Approval This document was reviewed by 2 official reviewers nominated by the ACC, AHA, and HRS; 1 official lay re- Table 1. Applying Class of Recommendation and Level of Evidence to Clinical Strategies, Interventions, Treatments, or Diagnostic Testing in Patient Care* (Updated August 2015) CLINICAL STATEMENTS AND GUIDELINES viewer nominated by the AHA; 1 organizational review- er nominated by the HFSA; and 28 individual content reviewers. Reviewers RWI information was distributed to the writing committee and is published in this docu- ment (Appendix 2). This document was approved for publication by the governing bodies of the ACC, the AHA, and the HRS; and endorsed by the HFSA. 1.4. Scope of the Guideline The purpose of this AHA/ACC/HRS document is to pro- vide a contemporary guideline for the management of adults who have VA or who are at risk for SCD, including diseases and syndromes associated with a risk of SCD from VA. This guideline supersedes the ACC/AHA/ ESC 2006 Guidelines for Management of Patients With Ventricular Arrhythmias and the Prevention of Sudden It also supersedes some sections of the ACC/AHA/HRS 2008 Guidelines for Device-Based Therapy of Cardiac Rhythm Abnormalities, S1.4-5 specifi- cally those sections on indications for the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD); and, it updates the SCD prevention recommendations in the 2011 ACCF/AHA Guideline for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Hyper- Some recommendations from the earlier guidelines have been updated as war- ranted by new evidence or a better understanding of existing evidence, and irrelevant or overlapping recom- mendations were deleted or modified. In the current guideline, sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is defined as the sudden cessation of cardiac activity so that the victim becomes unresponsive, with no normal breathing and no signs of circulation. S1.4-7 If corrective measures are not taken rapidly, this condition progresses to SCD. 