Tissue-Doppler Assessment of Cardiac Left Ventricular Function during Short-Term Adjuvant Epirubicin Therapy for Breast Cancer

Background: It has been hypothesized that the extent of acute anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity reflects the risk for late development of heart failure. The aim of this study was to examine if short-term changes in cardiac function can be detected even after low-dose adjuvant epirubicin therapy for breast cancer when using Doppler tissue imaging of longitudinal left ventricular function. Methods: Eighty consecutive women in good cardiopulmonary health scheduled to undergo adjuvant treatment for breast cancer were included. They were examined using echocardiography and Doppler tissue imaging before and after three treatment series of epirubicin (mean cumulative dose, 273.7 +/- 46.6 mg/m(2); median time interval, 9 weeks; range, 47-113 days). Results: Apart from a marginal reduction in E/A ratio, none of the conventional Doppler echocardiographic or Doppler tissue imaging indices of systolic and diastolic function were affected during epirubicin treatment. Conclusions: In contrast to several previous studies using tissue Doppler and conventional echocardiography, this study did not document relevant short-term effects of low-dose epirubicin treatment on heart function. (J Am Soc Echocardiogr 2011; 24: 200-6.)