Assessment of cardiac sympathetic nerve integrity with positron emission tomography

The autonomic nervous system plays a critical role in the regulation of car diac function. Abnormalities of cardiac innervation have been implicated in the pathophysiology of many heart diseases, including sudden cardiac death and congestive heart failure. In an effort to provide clinicians with the ability to regionally map cardiac innervation, several radiotracers for ima ging cardiac sympathetic neurons have been developed. This paper reviews th e development of neuronal imaging agents and discusses their emerging role in the noninvasive assessment of cardiac sympathetic innervation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.