A greater
IMT in lymphoma patients by comparison with healthy
subjects provides no conclusive evidence, because it also
depend on the timing and dosage of the RT and also on the
chemotherapy administered (Corrretti et al. 2002; Bilora
et al. 2006). Hence, our attempt to establish whether lymphoma
patients showed an increase in IMT or plaques over
a 3-year period receiving RT. We found that IMT increased
soon after RT but then tended to become thinner again.
This is probably due to oedema caused by the radiation
treatment. We consequently concluded that lymphoma
and its therapy do not accelerate the atherosclerotic
process. We also studiedFMDin the second year (FMDwas
not used in 2003 because we were still learning to use this
method), and the results suggest that although the IMT
improves, the early endothelial damage persists, which
means that atherosclerotic process may have been triggered.
Perhaps adopting prophylactic measures, such as
antioxidant therapy, can prevent the evolution of this
alteration towards full-blown atherosclerosis (Jalal et al.
1990; Jalal&Grundy 1993; Tam et al. 2005; Baragetti et al.
2006).