FIGURE 5. Incremental prognostic values of combined assessment of the plasma BNP level, the cardiac ¹²³I-MIBG activity, diabetes mellitus (DM), or chronic renal dysfunction (CRD), all of which are significant predictors of fatal pump failure in univariate analysis (Table 2). Hazard ratios () for fatal pump failure increased to 34.413 when both the plasma BNP level and the cardiac ¹²³I-MIBG activity were used, but no further improvement was achieved in any other combination. On the other hand, the greatest prevalence (62.5%) of fatal pump failure () was observed when all of these variables were used.