Clinical usefulness of myocardial innervation imaging using Iodine-123-meta-iodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy in evaluating the effectiveness of pharmacological treatments in patients with heart failure: an overview.

AIM: This study was designed to review published data regarding the clinical use- fulness of iodine-123-meta-iodobenzyl-guanidine (MIBG) scintigraphy in evaluating the effective- ness of pharmacological treatments in patients with heart failure (HF). METHODS: A comprehensive computer litera- ture search of the PubMed/MEDLINE and Embase databases was conducted to find relevant pub- lished articles about the clinical usefulness of MIBG scintigraphy in evaluating the effectiveness of pharmacological treatments in patients with HF. RESULTS: Thirty-three studies, comprising a total sample size of 1124 patients with HF, were included in this review. Main findings of the in- cluded studies are presented. CONCLUSIONS: Myocardial innervation imag- ing using MIBG scintigraphy can be successfully used to assess changes in cardiac sympathetic neuronal function caused by several pharmaco- logical interventions in patients with HF.