Hello Avis, I have been noticing this worry about heart and echocardiograms in all your posts. Well, recently, Dr. Cortes and Dr. Kantarjian had a teleconference for CML patients (did you listen to it? The details on how to register was posted on this list). Dr. Kantarjian specifically said that they are not doing echocardiograms regularly for CML patients and do not even recommend a baseline echo. He said they looked back over their records and out of 1300 patients on Gleevec, only 5 had congestive heart failure. So, the incidence is extremely rare. Moreover, Dr. Cortes echoed this and one CML patient specifically asked two times whether she had heard right, no echo baseline and yes, said Dr. Cortes, no echo as baseline. Just giving you some feedback on what two CML experts from MDACC had to say on heart issues with Gleevec and in the hope that you and Dona will be reassured.
However, the doctors both said that those with cardiac issues like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, need to have a baseline echocardiogram and be monitored. I do not understand why you say Dona's blood counts dropped, the LDH is high, not low. Hope you and Dona find a solution with her CML expert doctor. Since our doctor has not said one way or another whether to do an echo for my hubby, he has been on Gleevec for 4.5 years, I will feedback Drs. Cortes and Kantarjian's views to our doctor. I was glad to see doctors giving a number to the incidence of heart problems on Gleevec, it seems the MDACC experience is a 0.4% incidence of CHF with Gleevec patients which is below the normal incidence in the healthy population. I was certainly reassured. Hope you and Dona are, too. Anjana caregiver to Roy d/x Jan 2002 400mg Gleevec, March 2002 CCR, Sep 2002 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
