[Joanne S]

Muga vs. Echocardiogram

Testing your heart before and during Herceptin treatment

Before starting Herceptin therapy, you should have an echocardiogram or a MUGA scan to check how well your heart is functioning.

• An echocardiogram uses sound waves to take detailed pictures of the heart as it pumps blood. For this quick test, you lie still for a few minutes while a device that gives off sound waves is briefly placed on your ribs, over your heart. There is no radiation exposure with this test.
• A MUGA (multigated blood-pool imaging) scan takes about an hour. In this test, a tiny amount of radioactive material is injected into a vein in your arm. This material temporarily hooks onto your red blood cells. You lie still while a special camera that can detect the radioactive material takes pictures of the blood flow through your heart as it beats.

When you first start taking Herceptin, your doctor might want you to have MUGA scans or echocardiograms every few months to detect any sign of heart failure. But after you've been on Herceptin for a while, you may need a heart-monitoring test only every 6 months or so. This is because heart failure is less likely to occur the longer you take Herceptin.
If you're taking Herceptin, be sure to notify your doctor immediately, or go to the nearest emergency room, if you develop any symptoms of heart failure. These symptoms include shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, a fast or irregular heartbeat, increased cough, and swelling of the feet or lower legs.

This is a great site:
http://www.breastcancer.org/treatmen...de_effects.jsp