Radiation therapy is increasingly recognized as a cause of various heart diseases, including pericardial involvement and coronary artery disease, necessitating vigilant clinical management.
Radiation-induced heart disease affects multiple cardiac components and requires vigilant recognition and management by general internal medicine and cardiology practitioners.
Radiation induced heart diseases (RIHD) are increasingly recognized as more patients who received radiation therapy survive their diseases with improved management of various malignancies. Radiation affects every component of the heart, ranging from subclinical histopathologic changes to overt clinical disease. Pericardial involvement is the most common and includes asymptomatic pericardial effusion and constrictive pericarditis. The diseases involving the myocardium, valvular apparatus, and conduction system are often subclinical. When symptomatic, they are often the harbinger of more lethal, but treatable, radiation-induced coronary artery disease (CAD). Improvements in the modern radiation delivery systems have minimized irradiation of the heart. However, with increased and emerging indications for radiation therapy for various malignancies in the chest, as a part of bone marrow transplantations, and as the main agent of brachytherapy for advanced preexisting CAD, the incidence of RIHD is likely to increase. Appropriate management of RIHD, either overt or occult, must include understanding the natural history of RIHD, recognition of symptoms by careful history, and vigilant search for treatable causes of the RIHD or other diseases that might mimic RIHD. This article focuses on providing practical yet comprehensive clinical information for general internal medicine and cardiology practices.
Lee et al. (2005) conducted a review in Radiation induced heart diseases (RIHD). Radiation therapy was evaluated. Radiation therapy is increasingly recognized as a cause of various heart diseases, including pericardial involvement and coronary artery disease, necessitating vigilant clinical management.