Pediatric blood & cancer
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Pediatric blood & cancer · Apr 2005
Late cardiac evaluation of children with solid tumors after anthracycline chemotherapy.
The therapeutic potential of anthracycline antibiotics is limited by their cardiotoxicity. Electrocardiography, exercise testing, and two-dimensional echocardiography are non-invasive techniques used in the follow-up of children for cardiotoxicity. Plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels are thought to be useful markers in the early detection of AC induced cardiomyopathy. ⋯ Our findings demonstrated that echocardiographic and biochemical abnormalities could be found even at low cumulative doses of AC antibiotics. The use of serial echocardiographic studies and plasma BNP determinations to identify high-risk patients for cardiotoxicity needs to be verified by additional studies.