# Two-dimensional Speckle Tracking Imaging in Cardiotoxicity Caused by Treatment of Breast Carcinoma with Anthracyclines

## TL;DR

This study shows that two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging (2D-STI) is better than routine echocardiography at detecting heart damage caused by breast cancer chemotherapy.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that 2D-STI has higher clinical value than routine ECG for early detection of cardiotoxicity in breast cancer patients.

## Key findings

- After six chemotherapy cycles, 2D-STI detected significant differences in myocardial function between groups.
- Combining ECG and 2D-STI provided the best predictive effect for cardiotoxicity.
- 2D-STI showed higher clinical application value than routine ECG in monitoring heart damage.

## Abstract

Objective: This research was conducted to investigate the monitoring values of routine echocardiography (ECG) and two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging (2D-STI) in cardiotoxicity caused by the treatment of breast carcinoma with anthracyclines (ANTH).

Methods: 100 patients with breast carcinoma were selected and enrolled into normal group (n=53 cases) and abnormal group (47 cases) according to whether ECG was abnormal. Routine ECG and 2D-STI were employed for the detection, ECG- and 2D-STI-related parameters were compared, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn, and the clinical application values of monitoring methods for two groups were assessed.

Results: Before chemotherapy, no remarkable statistical difference was detected in routine ECG and 2D-STI parameters between normal and abnormal groups (P>0.05). After 6 cycles, E/V value of abnormal group was inferior to that of normal group ((0.93±0.16) vs (1.33±0.23). Besides, longitudinal peak strain (SRI) values of rear wall, front spacer, and rear spacer in abnormal group were inferior to those in normal group (P<0.05). Routine ECG combined with 2D-STI had the best predictive effect followed by 2D-STI and routine ECG.

Conclusion: To sum up, 2D-STI was a new method for assessing myocardial lesions and possessed significant early clinical monitoring values in cardiotoxicity caused by chemotherapy after the treatment of breast carcinoma with ANTH. It had higher clinical application values than routine ECG.