hodgkins connection?

[Bill Hall]

My neighbor and friend across the street died suddenly and unexpectedly in her sleep from heart failure. She was thin, petite, ate healthy, exercised and was around my age (52). She had Hodgkins disease 15 years ago and I remember that one or more on this site had valve damage due to radiation. So, I thought I could ask a few questions:

1 - What is the liklihood that her valves were damaged during radiation treatment? Is this widespread or just isolated to a few cases? Is her small frame a factor?
2 - Does the stenosis give mild or quiet symptoms? Do the emergency surgeries happen because you don't know you're heart is failing until very late?

Depending on your replies, I might tell/show the family, her husband and three children
Thanks - Bill

 

[ALCapshaw2]

My neighbor and friend across the street died suddenly and unexpectedly in her sleep from heart failure. She was thin, petite, ate healthy, exercised and was around my age (52). She had Hodgkins disease 15 years ago and I remember that one or more on this site had valve damage due to radiation. So, I thought I could ask a few questions:

1 - What is the liklihood that her valves were damaged during radiation treatment? Is this widespread or just isolated to a few cases? Is her small frame a factor?
2 - Does the stenosis give mild or quiet symptoms? Do the emergency surgeries happen because you don't know you're heart is failing until very late?

Depending on your replies, I might tell/show the family, her husband and three children
Thanks - Bill

Unfortunately, "Heart Failure" is not a very useful description. It would be useful to know if she had a heart attack (Miocardial Infarction) due to a blocked artery, or valve failure, or other cause. It would also be interesting to know if ANY of her doctors noted a "murmur" which is often a sign of valve disease and can be heard easily with a stethoscope.

There are 10 members of VR.com who survived Radiation Treatment (most for Hodgkins) who have also had Valve Replacement. See Johnny Stephens STORY.

Radiation is KNOWN to cause / exacerbate Coronary Artery Disease and / or Valve Stenosis is SOME patients, usually becoming symptomatic 20 to 30 years after the radiation therapy. I have no idea what percentage of radiation survivors develop significant heart issues. It would be interesting to see some statistics on this combination of effects! I wonder how many Radiologists are aware of the problem...

'AL Capshaw'

 

[Johnny Stephens]

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. I wonder-could you expand on her circumstances a bit?

The following is my opinion, and remember, I'm not a doctor (I don't even play one on TV).

Did she actually have radiation treatments for her Hodgkins? Some don't, depending on many factors such as tumor location and stage of the disease.

Was she ever diagnosed with valve problems?

If the answer to these is both "yes", and her heart itself was actually irradiated, chances are significant that radiation may have been at least a factor. Even then, she would seem to be a recent-enough case where they would have known more about cardiac shielding. I have had 2 doctors recently express surprise that I wasn't better shielded, and my treatment was 25 years ago.

Stenosis symptoms (fatigue, shortness of breath) generally creep up on you slowly, getting more pronounced with the passage of time. Often, people are slow to recognize something is wrong and subconsciously begin to rearrange their life to accomodate their symptoms.

 

[brd]

Post-radiation valve problems

Post-radiation valve problems

I am fairly new to this site and still in the waiting room for AVR. I had radiation as an adolescent - 40 years ago. I did not have Hodgkins but they radiated my thoracic duct which is in the upper chest on the left side because the tumor I had was spread through the lymphatic system. There was no shielding of the heart going on at that time. I have known of this valve problem for about ten years. It was detected via a murmur. I would think any physician following your friend/neighbor for any type of healthcare would have detected a murmur. Hope this is helpful. Barbara

 

[Bill Hall]

Thanks for the replies. Everyone said she had no signs of heart problems, which I just assumed included a murmer. She definitely had the radiation therapy. I could ask the family questions and maybe will do that sometime later (in a week or so), they are just recovering about what happened.
Bill

 

[RayinSF]

I know I am very late to this thread, but I too had radiation treatments for Hodgkins back in 1975, and my stenosis was discovered in 1993. All the docs are convinced that this led to the stenosis.

 

[bvdr]

Ray, then you make #11.

I had radiation treatments when I was 14 but not for Hodgekins. They were for whooping cough! That was in the very early 60's and an almost obsolete treatment for whooping cough even at that time. But I had whooping cough that just hung on and hung on and so started the radiation therapy. Just after that they thought I had mono. So sick I really didn't care what happened. Such a sore throat and hurt everywhere! To treat that I remember even being given gold. It was a suspension and it had to be shaken but the gold dust was very visible. I think it was for all the inflammation in my lungs and joints. In retrospect I think the period just following radiation was when I had rheumatic fever and because of the other things going on it was just missed. Oh well, I think I was just meant to have valve problems from one cause or another.

 

[perkicar]

One of the Radiation survivors

One of the Radiation survivors

I was treated in fall 78-winter79 for a mediastinal tumor and supraclavicular (on my collar bone) tumor). I know they shielded my lungs but know, becuase of where my tumor was, that my heart was irradiated. (or at least whatever part wasn't behind the lung shield. I know when I was going through the evals for my AVR up in Cleveland, they did tell me that the radiation also put you at higher risk for Coronary artery disease, due to increased risk of calcification and scarring???
Unless the did an autopsy, they may never know for sure. Sad to hear about her, how traumatic for her friends and family.

 

[Bill Hall]

Thanks for the additional input. I still haven't talked to Rich about the radiation information, but will soon. As you might imagine , he is still very down.
Bill