The present invention relates to methods for predicting the risk for ventricular arrhythmias in a subject who has previously suffered a myocardial infarction (MI) or suffers from a primary cardiomyopathy, said method comprising measuring the myocardial mechanical dispersion in said subject and estimating the risk for ventricular arrhythmias based on said measurements. Similar the invention relates to a method for evaluating whether a subject is a candidate for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy.