Prognostic Value of Cardiac Sympathetic Nerve Imaging Using Long-Term Follow-up Data - Ischemic vs. Non-Ischemic Heart Failure Etiology.

BACKGROUND

Although there are several known prognostic determinants in heart failure (HF), individual risk profiles can vary, in particular between ischemic and non-ischemic HF background. This study investigated the difference in prognostic efficacy of cardiac (123)I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) imaging between the 2 etiologies.

METHODS AND RESULTS

All 1,322 patients with HF were enrolled and followed up at most after 10 years. The HF patients were divided into 2 groups: an ischemic group (n=362) and non-ischemic group (n=960), and Cox proportional hazards model was used for data analysis. During 10 years of follow-up, 296 (22.4%) of 1,322 patients died; the mortality rates were 21.8% and 22.6% for the ischemic and non-ischemic groups, respectively. The ischemic group had greater prevalence of sudden death and lethal acute myocardial infarction, and the non-ischemic group had a higher rate of pump failure death. On multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis using categorized variables, in the ischemic group, delayed heart-to-mediastinum ratio (HMR; P<0.0001), age (P=0.0002) and LVEF (P=0.03) were the independent significant predictors of lethal events. In the non-ischemic group, delayed HMR (P<0.0001), NYHA class (P<0.0001) and age (P<0.0001) were significant determinants of lethal outcome.

CONCLUSIONS

Cardiac MIBG imaging has nearly identical prognostic value in both ischemic and non-ischemic HF, independent of cause of cardiac death.