Cardiac Innervation Imaging: Implications for Risk Stratification and Therapeutic Decision-Making

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Heart failure (HF) is associated with reduced cardiac sympathetic neuronal uptake of norepinephrine (NE), which can be assessed noninvasively using different radiotracers and planar or single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. Such sympathetic derangement in HF patients has shown to be an indicator of unfavorable prognosis. Therefore, cardiac sympathetic imaging might be useful as an indicator of the effectiveness of the medical therapy and consequently for risk stratification of patients with HF to more effectively guide specific therapies. This article reviews the current status on the subject and evaluates the literature published over recent years.