Speckle-tracking global longitudinal strain as an early predictor of cardiotoxicity in breast carcinoma.

Purpose Recent development in anticancer therapies for breast carcinoma allowed an improvement in patients’ survival, notwithstanding a parallel increase of cardiovascular morbidity. Cardiotoxicity of anticancer therapies represents a relevant problem due to its insidious onset and potentially irreversible cardiac damage. The aim of the present study was to test whether 2D speckle tracking analysis can help in predicting overt systolic dysfunction.