Cardiac sympathetic neuronal damage precedes myocardial fibrosis in patients with Anderson-Fabry disease

Cardiac sympathetic denervation may be detectable in patients with Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD), suggesting its usefulness for early detection of the disease. However, the relationship between sympathetic neuronal damage measured by ¹²³I–metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) imaging with myocardial fibrosis on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is still unclear.

Cardiac sympathetic innervation was assessed by ¹²³I–MIBG single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in 25 patients with genetically proved AFD. Within one month from MIBG imaging, all patients underwent contrast-enhanced CMR. MIBG defect size and fibrosis size on CMR were measured for the left ventricle (LV) and expressed as %LV.

Patients were divided into three groups according to MIBG and CMR findings: (1) matched normal, without MIBG defects and without fibrosis on CMR (n = 10); (2) unmatched, with MIBG defect but without fibrosis (n = 5); and (3) matched abnormal, with MIBG defect and fibrosis (n = 10). The three groups did not differ with respect to age, gender, α-galactosidase, proteinuria, glomerular filtration rate, and troponin I, while New York Heart Association class (p = 0.008), LV hypertrophy (p = 0.05), and enzyme replacement therapy (p = 0.02) were different among groups. Although in patients with matched abnormal findings, there was a significant correlation between MIBG defect size and area of fibrosis at CMR (r² = 0.98, p < 0.001), MIBG defect size was larger than fibrosis size (26 ± 23 vs. 18 ± 13%LV, p = 0.02).

Sympathetic neuronal damage is frequent in AFD patients, and it may precede myocardial damage, such as fibrosis. Thus, ¹²³I–MIBG imaging can be considered a challenging technique for early detection of cardiac involvement in AFD.