%0 Journal Article %A Yoshio Tanabe %A Hiromi Harada %A Shuji Sugihara %A Toshihide Ogawa %A Yuichi Inoue %T 123I-Metaiodobenzylguanidine Myocardial Scintigraphy in Panic Disorder %D 2004 %J Journal of Nuclear Medicine %P 1305-1308 %V 45 %N 8 %X Although autonomic function has been investigated in panic disorder, previous studies have not yet revealed a consistent autonomic change in this disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cardiac sympathetic function in panic disorder using 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG). Methods: Myocardial imaging using 123I-MIBG was performed on 9 patients with panic disorder (7 men, 2 women; mean age, 37.4 ± 13.2 y) and 11 control subjects (11 men; mean age, 37.6 ± 9.3 y). Early (30 min) and delayed (4 h) planar images were taken after the injection of 111 MBq 123I-MIBG. The mean counts in the whole heart and the mediastinum were obtained from the early and delayed images to calculate the heart-to-mediastinum count ratios (H/M ratios) and the myocardial washout rate. Results: The 123I-MIBG H/M ratios of the patients with panic disorder were 1.80 ± 0.16 for the early images and 1.86 ± 0.30 for the delayed images, which were significantly lower than those of the control subjects (2.15 ± 0.15 [P = 0.001] and 2.26 ± 0.21 [P = 0.009], respectively). The 123I-MIBG washout rate from the heart in the patients with panic disorder (33.8% ± 6.9%) was significantly higher than that in the control subjects (27.8% ± 3.5%) (P = 0.02). Conclusion: 123I-MIBG myocardial scintigraphy demonstrated impairment of cardiac sympathetic function in panic disorder. The results suggest that 123I-MIBG imaging could become a useful tool for analyzing the pathophysiology of panic disorder. %U https://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/jnumed/45/8/1305.full.pdf