[Heart function during postoperative high-voltage therapy in female patients with left-sided breast cancer]

Systolic time intervals according the method of Weissler were measured in nine females (mean age: 55.1 years) with mammary carcinoma on the left, prior to, during and 3 months after postoperative radiation therapy. The average load to the anterior cardiac wall amounted to 36 Gy. We found a reversible statistically highly significant decrease of left ventricular function (increase of PEP/LVET) during radiation therapy, which seems to be related to a radiation-induced acute pancarditis known from animal experiments.