[Nuclear medicine imaging for cardiomyopathy].

Nuclear medicine techniques have been applied to cardiomyopathy as well as in ischemic heart diseases. Various types of radiopharmaceutical including 201Tl and 99mTc-labeled perfusion tracers, 123I-labeled fatty acid(BMIPP), sympathetic function (MIBG) and tracers for myocardial injuries have been used. Perfusion imaging identifies stress-induced ischemia associated with myocardial damage. Recent application of gated SPECT enables simultaneous assessment of ventricular function. 123I-BMIPP and MIBG can detect metabolic abnormality, which has diagnostic and prognostic value for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The MIBG uptake index, heart-to-mediastinum ratio, is known to show good prognostic value for estimating dilated cardiomyopathy. Nuclear medicine plays unique roles for evaluating functional and metabolic derangement in cardiomyopathy.