[Cardiovascular complications of interferon].
Interferon, a fairly recent drug, is used in some cancers and other diseases. The adverse effects include cardiotoxicity which was recognized from phase-I trials. Some of these complications are very common and not serious at the dose levels administered: transient hypotension at the beginning of the treatment, atrial extrasystole. Other effects are less common and not dangerous: low-level conduction impairment or reversible hypertension as the authors recalled. There are also a much more serious forms of toxicity which may be life-threatening, one of which seems to be dose-dependent and consists of the onset of cardiomyopathy, which is usually reversible when treatment is stopped, the other is uncontrollable and usually occurs in high-risk cardiac patients from the first few injections and results in sudden death induced by acute coronary artery failure and/or serious ventricular arrhythmia. The physiopathology of this cardiotoxicity remains unknown, but as it is known to exist, rigorous cardiological monitoring of all patients receiving this treatment is necessary.
Ferrari
E
E
Service de Cardiologie, Hôpital Pasteur, Nice.
Taillan
B
B
Gibelin
P
P
Fuzibet
J G
JG
Dujardin
P
P
Baudouy
M
M
Morand
P
P
D000368:Aged; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000139:chemically induced; D007372:Interferons / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male
D007372:Interferons
Les complications cardiovasculaires de l'interféron.