Use of strain rate imaging for early detection of epirubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in patients with breast cancer.

e12531 Background: Although epirubicin has improved outcome in breast cancer (BC) patients, its application is limited by its cardiotoxicity . Assessment of left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) is performed to demonstrate cardiac dysfunction. Changes in cardiac function induced by this therapy, however, are difficult to quantitate by conventional echocacardiography. Tissue Doppler myocardial imaging (TDI) derived wall motion velocity, and strain rate (SR) have been shown to sensitively quantify abnormalities in cardiac function. The aim of this study was to determine if sensitive indices of LV dysfunction, would be useful for addressing the early detection of cardiotoxic side effects of epirubicin. Methods: BC patients (N = 45 median age 60.2years) without cardiovascular risk factors were prospectively included. All patients received epirubicin. Twenty patients received further trastuzumab. Conventional and TDI echocardiography were obtained at baseline , every 2cycles of treatment and 3 months after chemotherapy. Segmental peak systolic longitudinal and radial velocity, SR and strain, were measured. Results: at baseline, median LV-EF was > 55 %. There was no overall change in LV dimensions, EF and peak systolic velocity. In contrast, a significant reduction in longitudinal and radial SR and strain was found after 3 cycles (longitudinal strain -10.2% +/- 1.3 % vs baseline 22 +/- 4.1 %, P = .001; radial strain 26.1% +/-4,2% vs baseline 47.3% +/- 9.2 %, P < .001). Changes in radial strain appeared earlier and were more pronounced than longitudinal strain. Conclusions: In this study we confirm the clinical use of TDI parameters for early detection of epirubicin mediated cardiac dysfunction. TDI detected subtle changes of LV function after 3 cycles of therapy. Use of Strain Rate Imaging detects subclinical LV dysfunction and can predict further changes in EF ,therefore can be used to monitor epirubicin-induced cardiotoxicity.