Decreased myocardial 123I-MIBG uptake in Parkinson's disease

We studied myocardial 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) accumulation in 12 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). MIBG is an analog of norepinephrine (NE) and a tracer for sympathetic neuron integrity and function. MIBG uptake of the myocardium was significantly lower in PD than in controls. The heart to mediastinum ratio (H/M) was calculated by using the average count per pixel for the heart and mediastinum. In PD, H/M was lower than in controls (P<0.0001), while the washout ratio of the heart was higher (P<0.001). A decrease in myocardial accumulation of MIBG was observed in the early stage of PD. This suggests that the measurement of MIBG may help the diagnosis of early PD, and the causative factor underlying in PD may be operating the NE neuron as well as dopamine neuron.