MORPHOLOGY OF RADIATION-INDUCED HEART DISEASE

Abstract

Clinical application of cobalt 60 γ-rays and equipment capable of producing megavoltage x-rays and electrons has led to exciting new uses of radiotherapy. Particularly in the treatment of Hodgkin's disease, wide-field, relatively high-dose radiotherapy to involved lymphatic structures offers the only curative treatment for this otherwise uniformly fatal disease.^1,2Therapy with such high-energy beams has made it possible to attain large doses of radiation to deep tumors. Now skin damage is no longer the limiting factor in radiotherapy; however, this advance has also opened the door to high-dose radiation of normal tissue and potential complications not previously recognized as important. In a recent issue of the<i>Archives of Pathology</i>, Fajardo and associates describe the morphologic alterations in heart and pericardium of 16 patients in whom cardiac disease developed following courses of therapeutic x-irradiation of the mediastinum for thoracic tumors.³The most common abnormality observed was pericardial fibrosis often