PET Imaging of Cardiac SNS Function with [18F]mFBG in Heart Failure Models

When the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is excited, the balance in the body’s nerve signals can be disturbed; this imbalance can lead to heart failure (HF). The Rotstein lab validated the utility of a positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracer known as [18F]meta-fluorobenzylguanidine ([18F]mFBG) for imaging nerve density in the heart of healthy male and female rats. With our previous work supporting [18F]mFBG, we performed PET imaging using this agent on male and female rat models that mimic human heart failure conditions.