Neuronal dysfunction and medical therapy in heart failure: can an imaging biomarker help to "personalize" therapy?

Abstract

(123)I-metaiodobenzylguanidine ((123)I-MIBG) imaging is a tool for evaluating one of the fundamental pathophysiologic abnormalities seen in heart failure (HF), that of an upregulated sympathetic nervous system and its effect on the myocardium. Although this imaging technique offers information about prognosis for patients treated with contemporary guideline-based HF therapies and improves risk stratification, there are neither rigorous nor sufficient outcome data to suggest that this imaging tool can guide therapeutic decision making or better target subsets of patients with HF for particular therapies.