Leveraging Radiobiology for Arrhythmia Management: A New Treatment Paradigm?

Radiation therapy is a well-established approach for safely and non-invasively treating solid tumours and benign diseases with high precision and accuracy. Cardiac radiation therapy has recently emerged as a non-invasive treatment option for the management of refractory ventricular tachycardia. Here we summarise existing clinical and preclinical literature surrounding cardiac radiobiology and discuss how these studies may inform basic and translational research, as well as clinical treatment paradigms in the management of arrhythmias.

Postnatal dexamethasone treatment and retinopathy of prematurity in very-low-birth-weight neonates.

Whether postnatal dexamethasone treatment for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) increases the risk of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) neonates is uncertain. We performed a retrospective cohort study to determine the association between dexamethasone administered postnatally and the development of ROP in VLBW (< or = 1,250 g birth weight, < or = 32 weeks' gestational age at birth) neonates. The incidence of severe ROP (stage 2 or higher) was 26% among 72 infants who received no dexamethasone postnatally, 61% among 23 infants who received a low cumulative dexamethasone dose (< or = 1.8 mg/kg body weight), and 85% among 20 infants who received a high cumulative dexamethasone dose (> 1.8 mg/kg body weight). However, after adjustment for confounding covariates of prematurity and severity of lung disease by logistic regression analysis, we found no independent association between postnatal dexamethasone treatment and the incidence of severe ROP.