Cardiac sympathetic innervation and mortality risk scores in patients with heart failure

In the risk stratification and selection of patients with heart failure (HF) eligible for implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator (ICD) therapy, 123I‐meta‐IodineBenzylGuanidine (123I‐mIBG) scintigraphy has emerged as an effective non‐invasive method to assess cardiac adrenergic innervation. Similarly, clinical risk scores have been proposed to identify patients with HF at risk of all‐cause mortality, for whom the net clinical benefit of device implantation would presumably be lower. Nevertheless, the association between the two classes of tools, one suggestive of arrhythmic risk, the other of all‐cause mortality, needs further investigation.