Chinori Kurata, MD; Sakae Shouda, MD; Tadashi Mikami, MD; Akihiko Uehara, MD; Keiko Ishikawa, MT*; Kei Tawarahara, MD**; Tomoyasu Nakano, MD**; Fumitaka Matoh, MD**; Kazuhiko Takeuchi, MD**

Abstract
It is assumed that the low-frequency power (LF) of heart rate variability (HRV) increases with progress of congestive heart failure (CHF), therefore positively correlating with cardiac ¹²³I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) washout. It is demonstrated here that HRV, including normalized LF, correlated inversely with MIBG washout and positively with the ratio of heart-to-mediastinum MIBG activity in controls and CHF patients, whereas these correlations were not observed within CHF patients. Thus MIBG washout may increase and HRV including normalized LF may decrease with CHF, although the HRV and MIBG measures may not similarly change in proportion to the severity of the cardiac autonomic dysfunction in CHF.
(Jpn Circ J 1998; 62: 770- 772)

Key Words: Congestive heart failure; ¹²³I-metaiodobenzylguanidine; Heart rate variability

Mailing address: Chinori Kurata, Department of Medicine III, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 3600 Handa-cho, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan. E-mail: kurata-c@post.yamaha.co.jp