Cardiac sympathetic denervation in Lewy body disease

[123I]meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) myocardial scintigraphy is a useful diagnostic tool to differentiate Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies (Lewy body disease) from other related movement disorders, PARK2, and Alzheimer's disease. Postmortem study revealed that cardiac sympathetic denervation occurs in Lewy body disease and indicates the presence of Lewy pathology, which accounts for the decreased cardiac uptake of MIBG in Lewy body disease. Moreover, degeneration of cardiac sympathetic nerve precedes the neuronal loss in the sympathetic ganglia.