Importance of regional myocardial layer function by phased tracking method in doxorubicin cardiomyopathy

We examined whether the novel high resolution Doppler technique 'the phased tracking method' is useful for evaluating the functional deterioration in doxorubicin cardiomyopathy (DoxCM) following 20 patients of hematological malignancies. In normal subjects, myocardial layer thickening by the phased tracking method occurred homogeneously, i.e., no thinning was observed during systole, across the left ventricular wall. However, in patients, it was characterized by the appearance of non-functioning layers as well as by a decrease in systolic thickening. Conventional echocardiography is not sufficiently sensitive to demonstrate the changes in DoxCM. In contrast, the change in myocardial layer function was useful for showing increasing myocardial deterioration in DoxCM. The phased tracking method supplies useful diagnostic information for DoxCM.