Cardiac sympathetic nervous system imaging with ¹²³I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine: Perspectives from Japan and Europe

Cardiac sympathetic nervous system dysfunction is closely associated with risk of serious cardiac events in patients with heart failure (HF), including HF progression, pump-failure death, and sudden cardiac death by lethal ventricular arrhythmia. For cardiac sympathetic nervous system imaging, ¹²³I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine (¹²³I-MIBG) was approved by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 1992 and has therefore been widely used since in clinical settings. ¹²³I-MIBG was also later approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States of America (USA) and it was expected to achieve broad acceptance. In Europe, ¹²³I-MIBG is currently used only for clinical research. This review article is based on a joint symposium of the Japanese Society of Nuclear Cardiology (JSNC) and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC), which was held in the annual meeting of JSNC in July 2016. JSNC members and a member of ASNC discussed the standardization of ¹²³I-MIBG parameters, and clinical aspects of ¹²³I-MIBG with a view to further promoting ¹²³I-MIBG imaging in Asia, the USA, Europe, and the rest of the world.