26 Persistence of normal cardiac function and myocardial perfusion in irradiated long-term survivors of Hodgkin's disease

Evaluation of left ventricular function in long‐term survivors of childhood Hodgkin disease

“…Gomez et al observed an LV ejection fraction below 43% in 12 of 35 examined patients and a borderline value in a further 16 patients with no difference between patients after RT alone or combined chemotherapy 4. On the contrary, other authors found a normal LV ejection fraction in almost all long‐term survivors of Hodgkin disease 5,8 or in all long‐term survivors 6,10.…”

“…Patients treated for Hodgkin disease are particularly at risk of developing late myocardial damage since radiotherapy techniques may include large parts of the heart and adjuvant systemic therapy is frequently administered to these patients, in particular anthracycline‐containing chemotherapy. However, the data on the presence of myocardial abnormalities in the Hodgkin disease survivors are contradictory, probably because the parameters utilized for detecting it in previous studies were different and not very sensitive 4–10.…”