Design features and appraisal of the internal validity of included studies.

<p>Risk of bias is expressed as A (low risk), B (moderate risk), C (high risk), and D (incomplete reporting leading to inability to ascertain the underlying risk of bias).</p

Clinical events rate at a median FU of 5 years (P refers to pooled OR).

<p>Clinical events rate at a median FU of 5 years (P refers to pooled OR).</p

Major adverse cardiovascular events at a median FU of 5 years, mean 5.6 years (from top to bottom, MACE, Death, MI, Stroke, TVR).

<p>Major adverse cardiovascular events at a median FU of 5 years, mean 5.6 years (from top to bottom, MACE, Death, MI, Stroke, TVR).</p

Patients and procedural features of included studies.

<p>Patients and procedural features of included studies.</p

Major adverse cardiovascular events at 1 year (from top to bottom, MACE, Death, MI, Stroke, TVR).

<p>Major adverse cardiovascular events at 1 year (from top to bottom, MACE, Death, MI, Stroke, TVR).</p

Features of included studies.

<p>CABG: Coronary artery bypass graft; CVA; cerebrovascular accident; DES: drug eluting stent; LAD: left anterior descending; MI: myocardial infarction; PCI: percutaneous coronary intervention; RCT: randomised controlled trial.</p

Survival curve in patients with and without VEBs>1000/24h.

<p>Kaplan-Meier estimates cumulative survival between patients with or without VEBs>1000/24h. Black line: survival in patients with VEBs>1000/24h. Grey line: survival in patients with VEBs<1000/24. Each tick mark corresponds to a time of patient censoring. None of the patients without VEBs <1000/24h died or required and ICD-implantation during follow-up while 7 patients with VEBs >1000/2h at baseline met the composite end-point SCD/ICD implantation.</p

Clinical characteristics of patients who met the primary end-point (SCD+ICD) compared with patients without major arrhythmic events.

<p>Clinical characteristics of patients who met the primary end-point (SCD+ICD) compared with patients without major arrhythmic events.</p

ECG-Holter findings in our cohort of 100 selected SSc patients.

<p>ECG-Holter findings in our cohort of 100 selected SSc patients.</p

ROC curve on number of VEBs and major cardiac events.

<p>ROC curve on number of VEBs and major cardiac events (considered as sudden cardiac death or ICD implantation). AUROC = 0.92, p<0.0001. ROC = receiver operating curve. AUROC = area under ROC.</p