123I-meta-Iodobenzylguanidine Imaging in Patients with Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy: Results are Intriguing, but Unknowns Remain

Imaging to improve the results of cardiac resynchronization therapy

Novel imaging tools have the potential to increase the proportion of responders to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). Echocardiographic techniques, especially those based on tissue Doppler, may help to assess and quantify mechanical dyssynchrony and thus enable better selection of candidates for CRT. However, available echocardiographic techniques do not appear to be ready for routine pra...

123I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine in patients with chronic heart failure: technical aspects, conceptual issues, and future prospects.

Nuclear imaging in cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Recently, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has become implemented in the treatment of patients with severe heart failure. Although the improvement in systolic function after CRT implantation can be considerable, 20%-30% of patients do not respond to CRT. Evidence is accumulating that the presence of left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony is mandatory for a response to CRT. Since the early 19...

[Three-dimensional imaging in cardiac resynchronization therapy].

Cardiac resynchronization therapy improves clinical symptoms and prognosis of heart failure patients. However, it has been shown that up to 40% of patients do not respond to this therapy. Three main determinants of cardiac resynchronization therapy response have been identified: left ventricular dyssynchrony, left ventricular lead position, and extent and location of myocardial scar tissue. Two...

123I-Meta-iodobenzylguanidine Sympathetic Imaging: Standardization and Application to Neurological Diseases

(123)I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) has become widely applied in Japan since its introduction to clinical cardiology and neurology practice in the 1990s. Neurological studies found decreased cardiac uptake of (123)I-MIBG in Lewy-body diseases including Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. Thus, cardiac MIBG uptake is now considered a biomarker of Lewy body diseases. Although sc...