The impact of non- and anthracycline-based chemotherapy on fatigue in breast cancer survivors: results from WF-97415.

Purpose: To examine the differential effect of non- and anthracycline-based chemotherapy on fatigue over 12 months post-diagnosis among breast cancer survivors.

Methods: This study is based on a prospective Wake Forest NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) multicenter cohort study (WF-97415) of women with stage I to III breast cancer and non-cancer controls. Analyses compared those: 1) receiving, or 2) not receiving anthracycline chemotherapy, 3) receiving aromatase inhibitors (AIs) without chemotherapy, with 4) a comparator group without a history of cancer.

The relationship between body composition and left ventricular performance in women with breast, lymphoma, or sarcoma cancer.

Background: To understand how body composition in those with elevated body mass index impacts left ventricular function decline during cancer treatment, we determined the association between baseline body mass index (BMI), intra-abdominal adipose tissue (IAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) with baseline to 3-month left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) change among women receiving potentially cardiotoxic chemotherapy for breast cancer, lymphoma, or sarcoma.

Methods: Women underwent potentially cardiotoxic chemotherapy, such as doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, paclitaxel, and trastuzumab, for treatment of breast cancer, lymphoma, or sarcoma. We obtained magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of body composition and cardiac function prior to treatment, and then a repeat MRI for cardiac function assessment at three months into treatment.

Physical Activity During Breast Cancer Therapy Associates With Preserved Exercise Capacity and Cardiac Function (WF97415).

Background: Cancer treatment increases cardiovascular disease risk, but physical activity (PA) may prevent cardiovascular disease.

Objectives: This study examined whether greater PA was associated with better submaximal exercise capacity and cardiac function during cancer therapy.

Methods: Participants included 223 women with stage I to III breast cancer (BC) before and 3 months after undergoing treatment and 126 control participants.

Left Ventricular Mass Change After Anthracycline Chemotherapy.

Background: Myocardial atrophy and left ventricular (LV) mass reductions are associated with fatigue and exercise intolerance. The relationships between the receipt of anthracycline-based chemotherapy (Anth-bC) and changes in LV mass and heart failure (HF) symptomatology are unknown, as is their relationship to LV ejection fraction (LVEF), a widely used measurement performed in surveillance strategies designed to avert symptomatic HF associated with cancer treatment.

Methods And Results: We performed blinded, serial assessments of body weight, LVEF and mass, LV-arterial coupling, aortic stiffness, and Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire measures before and 6 months after initiating Anth-bC (n=61) and non-Anth-bC (n=15), and in 24 cancer-free controls using paired and χ tests and multivariable linear models.

Frequency of Left Ventricular End-Diastolic Volume-Mediated Declines in Ejection Fraction in Patients Receiving Potentially Cardiotoxic Cancer Treatment.

We sought to determine the frequency by which decreases in left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) with and without increases in end-systolic volume (LVESV) influenced early cancer treatment-associated declines in LV ejection fraction (LVEF) or LV mass. One hundred twelve consecutively recruited subjects (aged 52 ± 14 years) with cancer underwent blinded cardiovascular magnetic resonance measurements of LV volumes, mass, and LVEF before and 3 months after initiating potentially cardiotoxic chemotherapy (72% of participants received anthracyclines). Twenty-six participants developed important declines in LVEF of >10% or to values <50% at 3 months, in whom 19% versus 60%, respectively, experienced their decline in LVEF due to isolated declines in LVEDV versus an increase in LVESV; participants who dropped their LVEF due to decreases in LVEDV lost more LV mass than those who dropped their LVEF due to an increase in LVESV (p = 0.

Prognostic utility of cardiovascular magnetic resonance upright maximal treadmill exercise testing.

Background: Left ventricular wall motion abnormalities (LVWMA) observed during cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) pharmacologic stress testing can be used to determine cardiac prognosis, but currently, information regarding the prognostic utility of upright maximal treadmill induced LVWMA is unknown. Our objective was to determine the prognostic utility of upright maximal treadmill exercise stress CMR.

Methods: One hundred and fifteen (115) men and women with known or suspected coronary arteriosclerosis and an appropriate indication for cardiovascular (CV) imaging to supplement ST segment stress testing underwent an upright treadmill exercise CMR stress test in which LVWMA were identified before and immediately after exercise.

Mechanism of decreased sensitivity of dobutamine associated left ventricular wall motion analyses for appreciating inducible ischemia in older adults.

Background: Dobutamine associated left ventricular (LV) wall motion analyses exhibit reduced sensitivity for detecting inducible ischemia in individuals with increased LV wall thickness. This study was performed to better understand the mechanism of this reduced sensitivity in the elderly who often manifest increased LV wall thickness and risk factors for coronary artery disease.

Methods: During dobutamine cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DCMR) stress testing, we assessed rate pressure product (RPP), aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV), LV myocardial oxygen demand (pressure volume area, PVA, mass, volumes, concentricity, and the presence of wall motion abnormalities (WMA) and first pass gadolinium enhanced perfusion defects (PDs) indicative of ischemia in 278 consecutively recruited individuals aged 69 ± 8 years with pre-existing or known risk factors for coronary artery disease.

Left ventricular hypertrophy influences cardiac prognosis in patients undergoing dobutamine cardiac stress testing.

Background: This study was performed to determine the utility of dobutamine stress test results for predicting myocardial infarction (MI) and cardiac death in patients with chest pain and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH).

Methods And Results: Three hundred fifty-three participants with a mean+/-SD age of 64+/-12 years (54%men) underwent dobutamine cardiovascular magnetic resonance stress testing and then were followed up for 6+/-2 years (mean+/-SD; range, 0.5-11.

Aortic stiffness increases upon receipt of anthracycline chemotherapy.

PURPOSE Cancer survivors exposed to anthracyclines experience an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) events. We hypothesized that anthracycline use may increase aortic stiffness, a known predictor of CV events. PATIENTS AND METHODS We performed a prospective, case-control study involving 53 patients: 40 individuals who received an anthracycline for the treatment of breast cancer, lymphoma, or leukemia (cases), and 13 age- and sex-matched controls.

Left ventricular infarct size assessed with 0.1 mmol/kg of gadobenate dimeglumine correlates with that assessed with 0.2 mmol/kg of gadopentetate dimeglumine.

Objective: To determine myocardial infarct (MI) size during cardiovascular magnetic resonance at 1.5 Tesla using 0.1 mmol/kg body weight of gadobenate dimeglumine (Gd-BOPTA) and 0.

Constrictive pericarditis after cardiac transplantation: a case report and literature review.

We present a patient who was found to have constrictive pericarditis 6 months after cardiac allograft transplantation. The many invasive and non-invasive diagnostic procedures that were undertaken are reviewed, as is the gross pathology seen during surgery. In addition, the entity of constriction in the transplant patient is placed in context by an examination of the previous literature.