Abstract
Cardiac problems can occur at any time in cancer patients and be true medical challenges for physicians in an emergency center. The most important symptoms of heart disease include dyspnea, chest pain, chest discomfort, syncope, collapse, palpitation, edema, cough, hemoptysis, and excess fatigue. These symptoms are more common in patients with cancer than in those without it and are frequently nonspecific. Evaluation and management of cardiac emergencies in cancer patients may be challenging and may have to be individualized.
This chapter covers some of the most frequent cardiac emergencies in cancer patients we encounter at our emergency center: cardiac arrhythmias, acute coronary syndrome (ACS, heart failure emergencies, hypertensive emergencies, and pericardial disease-related emergencies. Clinicians must take into account the patient’s previous and ongoing cancer treatment to optimize treatment strategies for these emergencies.
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Chaftari, P., Mouhayar, E., Iliescu, C., Hassan, S.A., Kim, P. (2016). Cardiac Emergencies in Cancer Patients. In: Manzullo, E., Gonzalez, C., Escalante, C., Yeung, SC. (eds) Oncologic Emergencies. MD Anderson Cancer Care Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3188-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3188-0_3
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