| Abstract: | The appearance of vasculitis is often observed following the use of epirubicin hydrochloride in outpatients. As it is important to continue to provide a safe treatment for outpatient with little or no side effects, the aim of this study was to reveal causes underlying the outbreak of vasculitis or the vasculitic state of patients who had undergone instillation of epirubicin hydrochloride as an adjuvant therapy following a breast cancer surgery. The study was conducted based on past investigation records. We extracted relevant factors such as age, previous illness, physical condition and dosage of epirubicin hydrochloride from past records which may all be connected to the outbreak of vasculitis. We administered one dose of epirubicin hydrochloride that was diluted into 50-100 ml of normal saline solution or 5% glucose and instilled over a period of 30 minutes. As a result of this instillation of epirubicin hydrochloride, 35 out of 45 cases displayed vasculitis. We did not observe any relationship among the aged (over 60), previous illness or physical condition (BMI over 25) and the appearance of vasculitis. When a dosage amount of more than 110 mg of epirubicin hydrochloride was administered, 23 out of 29 cases displayed vasculitis. From the past records, it was observed that the cause of vasculitis was dependent on the administrative method itself. As previous studies reported that vasculitis was low when epirubicin hydrochloride was retained in blood vessels for only a short time, our study, however, concentrated on how to administer epirubicin hydrochloride. Our results suggested that an adoption of a single dosage system may suppress the outbreak of vasculitis. |
