Prospective longitudinal assessment of late anthracycline cardiotoxicity after childhood cancer: the role of diastolic function

Abstract

It has been suggested that diastolic changes precede systolic dysfunction in various conditions and predict later deterioration. Similarly, LV restriction has been suggested to be a late functional event after anthracycline exposure. Most reports of anthracycline cardiotoxicity are cross-sectional studies of heterogeneous diagnostic groups receiving various anthracycline schedules.⁵ We obtained prospective longitudinal diastolic data in two well defined cohorts of long term survivors of ALL and Wilms’ tumor (WT) and compared this to systolic function. Both cohorts underwent echocardiographic evaluation in 1991–92 and again in 1995–96.