title: [Cardiomyopathy due to adriamycin: the possibility of its prevention. Monitoring by noninvasive technics].
abstract: To prevent delayed cardiomyopathy induced by adriamycin and subsequent severe congestive heart failure, a monitoring schedule with noninvasive techniques to measure cardiac performance (CPK-MB, electrocardiographic, systolic time intervals, echocardiography and quantitative radionuclide angiography) has been used. 15 patients, 33 to 65 years old, with metastatic breast carcinoma, previously treated with a polychemotherapy protocol not including adriamycin have been studied. Monitoring at 0 time allowed to exclude one patient with previous asymptomatic cardiomyopathy and to treat patients at risk with cardiovascular pathology, up to reach and even exceed the dosage of 550 mg/m2. Four of the treated patients showed positive findings of cardiomyopathy at different adriamycin dosage levels: 2 asymptomatic dilatative cardiomyopathies, 1 symptomatic and 1 with congestive heart failure remitted with medical therapy. No patient died because of cardiovascular complications. The results obtained show that of all noninvasive techniques used, only quantitative radionuclide angiocardiography allowed, when employed following an adequate monitoring schedule, to detect reliable findings of moderate and reversible cardiomyopathy thus indicating the appropriate time for drug discontinuation.
authors.affiliation: Ospedali Riuniti di Bergamo, Division di Oncologia.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bianchi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bertocchi
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Felci
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ferrario
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Giani
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mariani
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Medolago
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sarti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006334:Heart Function Tests; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis
chemical_list: D004317:Doxorubicin
vernacular_title: Cardiomiopatia da adriamicina: possibilità di prevenzione. Monitoraggio con tecniche non invasive.