Why the study?
What are the current practices and trends in the usage of imaging modalities for chemotherapy-related cardiotoxicity screening?
What are the current practices and trends in the usage of imaging modalities for chemotherapy-related cardiotoxicity screening?
There is a favorable trend toward decreased use of radiation-associated MUGA scans and increased use of echocardiography and CMR for chemotherapy-related cardiotoxicity screening.
Supports shift to lower-radiation modalities; extends observational trends but leaves outcome impact open.
BACKGROUND: Radiation exposure is a serious concern with usage of serial multigated acquisition (MUGA) scans (7.8mSv/study) for chemotherapy-related cardiotoxicity (CRC) screening. The current practice with respect to the imaging modalities chosen for cardiotoxicity screening and related radiation exposure has not been studied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a serial cross-sectional study from 2011 to 2014, evaluating the relative usage of the three imaging modalities for CRC screening. RESULTS: MUGA scan usage decreased from 30.4% to 16.7%, echocardiogram (Echo) utilization increased from 68.7% to 80.4% and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) usage increased from 0.9% to 2.9% in the 4-year period. Estimated total radiation exposure and secondary cancer risk can increase significantly in certain subgroups when MUGA scan is employed for serial cardiac imaging. CONCLUSION: Increased awareness of radiation risks from MUGA, as well as increasing focus on early detection of cardiotoxicity using Echo and CMR, are possible reasons behind the observed trends.
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Kolla et al. (2017) studied this question.
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