Characterisation of anthracycline cardiotoxicity in long-term childhood cancer survivors using conventional and novel CMR techniques: probing the pathology

Background Late cardiotoxicity is a known complication of anthracycline therapy. CMR is the gold standard for assessment of cardiac function, with demonstrated utility in the detection of subtle abnormalities of myocardial structure and motion. Using conventional and novel CMR techniques, we re-examined a cohort of late cancer survivors, previously studied with echocardiography in childhood. We compared them concurrently to healthy controls, aiming to characterise myocardial abnormalities in the context of longitudinal functional data.