PLoS ONE (Jan 2018)

Age- and sex-dependent changes in sympathetic activity of the left ventricular apex assessed by 18F-DOPA PET imaging.

  • Irene A Burger,
  • Christine Lohmann,
  • Michael Messerli,
  • Susan Bengs,
  • Anton Becker,
  • Monika Maredziak,
  • Valerie Treyer,
  • Ahmed Haider,
  • Moritz Schwyzer,
  • Dominik C Benz,
  • Ken Kudura,
  • Michael Fiechter,
  • Andreas A Giannopoulos,
  • Tobias A Fuchs,
  • Christoph Gräni,
  • Aju P Pazhenkottil,
  • Oliver Gaemperli,
  • Ronny R Buechel,
  • Philipp A Kaufmann,
  • Catherine Gebhard

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202302
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 8
p. e0202302

Abstract

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BACKGROUND:Sexual dimorphism in cardiac sympathetic outflow has recently gained attention in the context of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Previous studies suggest that there are sex- and age-dependent differences in peripheral autonomic control, however, data on cardiac-specific sympathetic activation in aged women and men are lacking. METHODS AND RESULTS:Regional quantitative analysis of cardiac fluorine-18 (18F)- Dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) uptake was retrospectively performed in 133 patients (69 females, mean age 52.4±17.7 years) referred for assessment of neuroendocrine tumours (NET) by Positron-Emission-Tomography. Cardiac 18F-DOPA uptake was significantly higher in women as compared to men (1.33±0.21 vs. 1.18±0.24, p55 years of age (1.39±0.25 in women vs. 1.09±0.24 in men, p<0.001). Women showed a prominent increase in myocardial 18F-DOPA uptake with age with the strongest increase seen in the LV apical region (r = 0.34, p = 0.004). Accordingly, sex and age were selected as significant predictors of LV apical 18F-DOPA uptake in a stepwise linear regression model. No age-dependent changes of cardiac 18F-DOPA uptake were observed in men or in the right ventricular region. CONCLUSION:Our study suggests that aging is related to sex-specific changes in regional cardiac sympathetic activity. Future studies will have to assess whether the increase in LV apical 18F-DOPA uptake with age in women is of pathogenic relevance for the higher susceptibility of postmenopausal women to conditions associated with increased sympathetic activity.