• Kaisa Ylänen, Tuija Poutanen, Tanja Savukoski, Anneli Eerola, and Kim Vettenranta.
• Department of Paediatrics, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland; University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
• Acta Paediatr. 2015 Mar 1; 104 (3): 313-9.

AimThe role that plasma N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and cardiac troponins T (cTnT) and I (cTnI) play in supplementing imaging to screen for cardiac late effects remains controversial and the impact of high-sensitivity cTnT and troponin-specific autoantibodies (cTnAAbs) remains unexplored. We studied the role of cardiac biomarkers as indicators of the late effects of anthracyclines among childhood cancer survivors.MethodsWe measured NT-proBNP, cTnT, high-sensitivity cTnT, cTnI and cTnAAbs in 76 childhood cancer survivors at a median of 9 years after primary diagnosis. The survivors underwent conventional and real-time three-dimensional echocardiography and 62 underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).ResultsOf the survivors, four (5.3%) without risk factors for cardiotoxicity were cTnAAb-positive with an impaired cardiac function in MRI. Another four (5.3%) had an abnormal NT-proBNP level associated with an abnormal cardiac function and risk factors for cardiotoxicity. None showed measurable cardiac troponins, determined by the three different methods, with even the high-sensitivity cTnT-levels remaining normal.ConclusionElevated plasma NT-proBNP or cTnAAbs indicated that childhood cancer survivors benefitted from being evaluated with modern imaging, despite normal function in conventional echocardiography. However, troponins did not seem to provide additional information on the late cardiotoxicity of anthracyclines.©2014 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

45 keywords...

hide…