Introduction:

There are daily reports of the toxic effects of chemotherapy on the heart, among them are the arrhythmias. However, there are very few publications on bradycardia caused by anti-neoplastic treatment.

Objective:

To describe and analyse the presence of post-chemotherapy bradycardia in the oncology patient.

Materials and methods:

A non-experimental, descriptive and retrospective study was conducted on patients seen during the year 2017 in a Cardiology Department due to post-chemotherapy bradycardia.

Results:

A total of 59 patients were evaluated, of whom 31 (52.5%) were males and 28 (47.5%) women, and with a median age of 42 years. The median heart rate was 46 beats per minute. The bradycardia was more common in acute myelocytic leukaemia (25.42%), followed by acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (20.34%). It was asymptomatic in 88.31% of cases. The chemotherapy drugs associated with bradycardia in acute myelocytic leukaemia were cytarabine in combination with daunorubicin, whilst in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia they were vincristine in combination with daunorubicin. A prolonged QTc interval was present in 12 (20.34%) of cases. The time between the chemotherapy and the onset of bradycardia was 24 to 48 hours in 35.6%, and the recovery of the heart rate was between 24 and 48 hours in 61.02%.

Conclusions:

Sinus bradycardia as an adverse effect of chemotherapy is more frequent in acute myelocytic leukaemia, whilst the most common anti-neoplastic drugs associated with bradycardia were cytarabine and daunorubicin.

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