EFFECTS OF CARDIOTOXIC CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS ON VASCULAR STIFFNESS AND OSCILLOGRAPHIC EVALUATION

Abstract

Background: Several clinical studies have demonstrated that arterial stiffness is an early indicator of cardiovascular events. Our study aimed to detect the potential cardiovascular changes using arterial stiffness parameters and compare these changes with echocardiographic aortic stiffness parameters in cancer patients treated with cardiotoxic chemotherapeutics.
Methods and Results: Our study is a prospective case-control study. A total of 70 subjects between the ages of 18 and 50 years were included into our study. 30 of them were newly diagnosed cancer patients and 40 were age- and sex-matched control group. Baseline oscillometric arterial and echocardiographic aortic stiffness parameters were measured in all patients. In cancer patients, all of these parameters were measured again one month after chemotherapy protocol was completed. Mean age of the cancer patients was 41.4 ± 5.9 years and mean age of the control group was 39.6 ± 6.6 years (p=0.258). Before chemotherapy, marterial and aortic stiffness parameters were similar between the study and the control groups. After chemotherapy, oscillometric pulse wave velocity parameter increased compared to the control group and to the pre-chemotherapy values (p=0.004 and p<0.001, respectively). After chemotherapy, augmentation index parameter increased compared to the control group (p=0.013). Conclusion: In newly-diagnosed cancer patients treated with cardiotoxic chemotherapeutics, considerable impairment occurs in some of the oscillometric arterial stiffness parameters while there is no substantial effect on echocardiographic aortic stiffness. Arterial stiffness parameters in these patients might be useful in evaluating subclinical cardiovascular damage.