Early cardiac changes related to radiation therapy

Abstract To investigate the incidence and severity of possible radiation-induced cardiac changes, 21 women without heart disease were investigated serially by echocardiography and by measuring systolic time intervals before and up to 6 months after postoperative radiation therapy because of breast cancer. Radiation was associated with a decrease in fractional systolic shortening of the left ventricular (LV) minor-axis diameter, from 0.35 ± 0.05 to 0.32 ± 0.06 (p