Recent Advances and Clinical Applications of PET Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System Imaging

AbstractPurpose of ReviewThe purpose of this review was to summarize current advances in positron emission tomography (PET) cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) imaging, with a specific focus on clinical applications of novel and established tracers.Recent Findings[11C]-Meta-hydroxyephedrine (HED) has provided useful information in evaluation of normal and pathological cardiovascular function. Recently, [11C]-HED PET imaging was able to predict lethal arrhythmias, sudden cardiac death (SCD), and all-cause mortality in heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). In addition, initial [11C]-HED PET imaging studies have shown the potential of this agent in elucidating the relationship between impaired cardiac sympathetic nervous system (SNS) innervation and the severity of diastolic dysfunction in HF patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and in predicting the response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in HFrEF patients. Longer half-life18F-labeled presynaptic SNS tracers (e.g., [18F]-LMI1195) have been developed to facilitate clinical imaging, although no PET radiotracers that target the ANS have gained wide clinical use in the cardiovascular system. Although the use of parasympathetic nervous system radiotracers in cardiac imaging is limited, the novel tracer, [11C]-donepezil, has shown potential utility in initial studies.SummaryMany ANS radioligands have been synthesized for PET cardiac imaging, but to date, the most clinically relevan...
Source: Current Cardiology Reports - Category: Cardiology Source Type: research