Baseline blood pressure and development of cardiotoxicity in patients treated with anthracyclines: A systematic review.

Aims: Anthracyclines, a mainstay of cancer treatment, are associated with significant life-threatening cardiotoxicity. As cancer survivorship improves, there is a growing need to identify patients most at risk and strategies to mitigate anthracycline-associated cardiotoxicity. Elevated baseline blood pressure (bBP) is a possible risk factor for cardiotoxicity.

A comparison of cardiovascular risk scores in native and migrant South Asian populations.

Background: South Asians have increased cardiovascular risk burden but little data exists comparing cardiovascular (CV) risk models in migrant and native South Asians. Our retrospective cohort study in patients presenting with first acute myocardial infarction(MI) compares the predictive value of CV risk scores in native and UK migrant South Asians.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 80 UK-based patients of South Asian origin admitted with first presentation MI, excluding patients with known coronary artery disease.

Cancer immunotherapy and its potential cardiac complications.

Recent advances in immune therapy for cancer have significantly improved the clinical outcomes of patients with advanced cancers, where prognosis has historically been very poor. With these new treatments have come new toxicities and, as the use of immunotherapy increases, we will see an increasing incidence of immune-related adverse events, with patients presenting as an emergency. It is important that all cardiologists, and other physicians who see these patients, are aware of life-threatening immune-related toxicities, in addition to their recommended investigation and treatment.

Caseous Intracardiac Calcification: A Diagnostic Enigma.

Intramyocardial calcification is a rare phenomenon often only discovered on postmortem. We describe the case of a healthy 69-year-old lady diagnosed with idiopathic caseous intracardiac calcification extending from the mitral valve annulus. We present high-quality images and propose an investigatory template for future cases.

Chronic cardiovascular toxicity in the older oncology patient population.

Survivorship statistics demonstrate that the incidence of cancer continues to rise worldwide, with a further 60% increase in diagnoses predicted by 2030 attributed to lifestyle risk factors, screening programmes resulting in earlier diagnosis but also the changing demographics of the population. More than a third of new cancer diagnoses and almost half of cancer survivors are now aged 70 years or older. Despite this increasing incidence, worldwide five-year cancer survival rates have improved significantly over the past two decades.