Tissue Doppler echocardiography: a potential screening tool for anthracycline-associated cardiotoxicity.

摘要

Over the last 40 years great success has been achieved in the fight against childhood cancer with 5-year survival rates of some childhood cancers now exceeding 85% including ALL and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) [1]. However, the very therapies that have helped achieve this success have come with a cost resulting in a legacy of late effects. In particular, anthracydines and radiotherapy with involved field cardiac exposure have lead to an increased risk of cardiac morbidity and mortality. The article by Alehan et al. [2] in this issue of Pediatric Blood and Cancer addresses whether a relatively new echocardiography technique, Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI), can assist in detecting anthracy-cline-associated cardiomyopathy in children treated for HL.