Herceptin without MUGA?
 

Anyone here had first Herceptin infusion without a baseline MUGA?

I did! It was weeeks before my doctor ordered one and I was too stupid at the time to ask for it. I was in pretty good health, but it would have been better to have a good baseline. I would insist on this for your mom. Note, I have never had a muga, only echo's , either will do.

From my understanding, the baseline MUGA is used to see if there is any degradation of the function of the left ventricle due to Herceptin. Raw numbers may or may not tell when the Herceptin is getting to the danger level. As an example, if someone scored a 56, then a doctor may consider pulling them off of Herceptin without a baseline measurement. If the initial base test had a MUGA score of 54, then obviously, there would be evidence that the Herceptin is doing no damage to the heart even though the score was low.

Likewise, if someone scored a 66, then it would appear that everything was normal without a baseline test. If the baseline was a 78, then the 66 could raise a red flag and the doctor would need to schedule more frequent MUGA scans to ensure the patient's safety.

Sometimes a trend is more important than raw numbers.

Sure. That's how I understood it. In any case, after telling the onc that before deciding adjuvant treatment 4 years ago, my mom had a MUGA of 51, he agreed to do the baseline. Strangely, her MUGA now is 65. Makes me wonder about one or both of the tests. It's a bit bittersweet since more aggressive adjuvant treatment was avoided in part due to her earlier MUGA. Hmmmm.

I only have had ultrasounds, one before Herceptin and every 3 months.

Rich
I did not have one before my initial herceptin...then I always had echos instead of mugas...last time I had a Muga...there can be a variance between the 2....especially if one has had reconstruction with an implant on the left...makes it harder to measure the LVEF as the heart is harder to visualize with an ECHO

I did too. Long story, but turned out ok. I requested a MUGA after the first herceptin, and was taken off it until after chemo and rads.

I have only had echo's---

Re: Herceptin without MUGA?
 

Hi - sorry, just saw this post - but I live in Italy - and they do a baseline but with a ultrasound - as they do not do a MUGA here - they don't want to put the heart under any more stress by putting the radioactive dye into it - so they prefer to do the ultrasounds and not the MUGA (I actually was worried at first but then thought - shoot, I don't want any more radiation inserted directly into my blood stream!) so.... then after consideration I am hoping (praying) that this test is enough to monitor my heart when on the Herception.

Hope this helped.... Karen