Response to letter regarding article, "mortality and sudden death in pediatric left ventricular noncompaction in a tertiary referral center".

We thank Drs Stollberger and Finsterer for their letter. They raise many important questions that warrant further discussion and evaluation. Although many of the specific questions remain beyond the scope of the original article,1 we would like to provide clarification to some of the inquiries solicited. As suggested in the query, it is well documented that left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) can be associated with congenital heart disease (CHD) or neuromuscular disorders.2 We chose to exclude them from our analysis because it has been shown that their prognosis and outcomes are not uniform and indeed worse than those without associated disease. Although the morphology may not be different between isolated and nonisolated LVNC, for the clinician, separation of …