123I-MIBG Scintigraphy as a Powerful Tool to Plan an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator and to Assess Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy in Heart Failure Patients

Iodine-123-metaiodobenzylguanidine ((123)I-MIBG) scintigraphy is a nuclear medicine technique which describes the functional status of the cardiac sympathetic nervous system. It is well known that an autonomic dysfunction is present in heart failure setting as a neuronal uptake of norepinephrine is impaired in the failing myocardium. Reduction in sympathetic nervous function in the heart, measured by reduced myocardial uptake of (123)I-MIBG, is an indicator of poor prognosis for heart failure patients. The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of (123)I-MIBG scintigraphy in evaluating the need of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and the response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in heart failure patients. For this purpose scientific literature data on these topics were reviewed. Based on literature data, (123)I-MIBG scintigraphy seems to be a useful tool to assess which patients may benefit most from an ICD implantation to reduce the risk of ventricular arrhythmia or sudden cardiac death. Furthermore, (123)I-MIBG scintigraphy seems to predict which patients will response to CRT with an improvement in left ventricular function.