Paragangliomas are neural crest-derived tumors, arising either from chromaffin sympathetic tissue (in adrenal, abdominal, intra-pelvic, or thoracic paraganglia) or from parasympathetic tissue (in head and neck paraganglia). They have a specific cellular metabolism, with the ability to synthesize, store, and secrete catecholamines (although most head and neck paragangliomas do not secrete any ca...

Background: Iodine-123 metaiodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG) myocardial scintigraphy has been accepted as one of the most useful methods for the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Moreover, the accumulated evidence has indicated that the heart-to-mediastinum (H/M) ratio correlates with the disease severity of hypokinesia/ bradykinesia and rigidity. The present report describes the wearing-off...

High altitude hypoxia induces a decrease in the cardiac chronotropic function at maximal exercise or in response to isoproterenol infusion, suggesting an alteration in the cardiac sympathetic activation. Iodine-123 metaiodobenzylguanidine [( 123I]MIBG) was used to map scintigraphically the cardiac sympathetic neuronal function in six male subjects (aged 32 +/- 7 yr) after an exposure to high al...

BACKGROUND Cardiac involvement is an important factor for the appropriate management of systemic sclerosis (SSc). The possibility for detecting early myocardial damage was investigated using (99m)Tc methoxyisobutylisonitrile (MIBI) gated perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and (123)I metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) sympathetic imaging. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-three ...

Pheochromocytomas are rare tumors arising from chromaffin cells of adrenal medullary or extra-adrenal paraganglionic tissue. These tumors are characterized by synthesis, storage, metabolism and secretion of catecholamines. Similar to the sympathetic nervous system, pheochromocytomas express cellular norepinephrine transporters (NET) through which catecholamines can enter pheochromocytoma cells ...

UNLABELLED The norepinephrine transporter (NET) has recently been suggested as a useful reporter gene. We have extended this effort by constructing an internal ribosomal entry site (IRES)-linked hNET-green fluorescent protein (GFP) hybrid reporter gene for both nuclear and optical imaging. METHODS A retroviral vector pQCXhNET-IRES-GFP was constructed and used to generate several reporter cell...

he sympathetic nervous system of the heart is critically involved in the maintenance of cardiovascular homoeostasis by regulating cardiac contractility, conduction, heart frequency and peripheral vasoconstriction.1 It has been shown that a dysfunctional cardiac sympathetic nervous system exerts detrimental effects on the structural and functional integrity of the myocardium, leading to a marked...

UNLABELLED Carvedilol and metoprolol have been reported to be effective in the treatment of patients with chronic heart failure. However, to our knowledge, there have been no studies comparing the effects of the 2 drugs on cardiac function, including cardiac sympathetic nerve activity. METHODS We compared 15 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) who were receiving carvedilol (group A) wi...