The role of echocardiographic parameters in the prevention and monitoring of cardiac toxicity on antitumor treatments

Abstract

The paper presents a summary of the literature that includes the results of the research on the echocardiographic parameters for the early detection and monitoring of the cardiac toxicity of the antitumor treatment. While the left ventricular ejection fraction is currently the most widely used index to quantify cardiac function in cardio-oncology, there are a number of indices under investigation to prove their prognostic value in the occurrence of adverse cardiac events during cancer therapy. Such indices derived from the Doppler method, speckle tracking parameters, strain rate as well as parameters derived from three-dimensional echocardiography, which can provide additional sensitivity and substantial prognostic value for future cardiovascular events.