This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Cardiac MRI detected cardiac abnormalities in long-term survivors of childhood cancer
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Long-term childhood cancer survivors with anthracycline exposure show a considerable proportion of left ventricular and right ventricular dysfunction detectable by cardiac MRI, according to study data.
Researchers studied 62 long-term survivors of childhood cancer (34 girls and 28 boys) who received treatment at Tampere University Hospital, in Tampere, Finland, between February 2010 and June 2011. The survivors’ mean age was 14.6 years (mean age at the time of malignancy was 3.8 years) and mean follow-up time was 7.8 years. Mean cumulative anthracycline (doxorubicin, daunorubicin, idarubicin, mitoxantrone) dose was 222 mg/m2.
Kaisa Ylänen
Cardiac MRI revealed abnormal LV function (ejection fraction <45%) in 18% of survivors and abnormal right ventricular function in 27% of survivors. Sixty-one percent had subnormal (45% ≤ ejection fraction <55%) LV function and 53% had subnormal right ventricular function. LV and right ventricular end-systolic and LV end-diastolic volumes were increased compared with reference values. No survivors presented with late gadolinium enhancement. Myocardial fibrosis was not detected at 7.8 year follow-up, according to the study results.
“The data unequivocally document a marked LV and [right ventricular] dysfunction without signs of focal myocardial fibrosis among the anthracycline-exposed long-term survivors of childhood cancer. However, the myocardial dysfunction remains mostly asymptomatic at approximately 1 decade post-therapy,” researchers wrote.
“In the follow-up of these patients, the cardiac MRI is highly usable, particularly among those with poor acoustic windows or the right ventricular function at focus. “Whether a longer follow-up will render putative anthracycline-induced myocardial fibrosis detectable (eg, late gadolinium enhancement) among the long-term survivors of childhood cancer remains to be established.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts