Author/Editor     Kališnik, Jurij M; Avbelj, Viktor; Trobec, Roman; Ivaskovic, Daroslav; Vidmar, Gaj; Troise, Giovanni; Geršak, Borut
Title     Effects of beating- versus arrested-heart revascularization on cardiac autonomic regulation and arrhythmias
Type     članek
Source     Heart Surg Forum
Vol. and No.     Letnik 10, št. 4
Publication year     2007
Volume     str. E279-87
Language     eng
Abstract     Background: Altered autonomic regulation after cardiac operations precipitates cardiac arrhythmias, affects repolarization, and increases the risk of sudden cardiac death. We sought to clarify how the 2 different techniques of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), namely conventional CABG using cardiopulmonary bypass (on-pump) and beating-heart CABG without cardiopulmonary bypass (off-pump), affect cardiac autonomic regulation and arrhythmic disturbances postoperatively. Methods: We included 57 consecutive patients, 28 in the on-pump group and 29 in the off-pump group. The electro-cardiographic recordings were performed on the preoperative day and the fourth, seventh, and twenty-eighth day after operation. Fifteen-minute digital recordings were taken; one channel was used to record electrocardiogram and the other breathing. Detailed analyses of arrhythmia, heart rate, and heart rate variability indices were performed on respective days to assess sympathetic and parasympathetic modulation of the heart and relate it to detected arrhythmic disturbances. Results: Total power, low-frequency power, which indicates baroreceptor-mediated sympathetic modulation, and high-frequency power, indicating parasympathetic vagal modulation, declined significantly in both groups after CABG (P < .001); however, 7 days after CABG, total and high-frequency power were better preserved in the off-pump group. Mean RR interval was longer in the off-pump group at 7 (P= .006) and 28 days (P= .008) after surgery. The total incidence of arrhythmic events was higher in the on-pump group on the seventh day (P = .017, adjusted odds ratio = 8.6, 95% confidence interval 1.4-80.3). Conclusions: The results show profound impairment of cardiac autonomic regulation after CABG, showing better preserved cardiac autonomic modulation 7 days after beating-heart revascularization. (Abstract truncated at 2000 characters)
Descriptors     CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS
CARDIOPULMONARY BYPASS
HEART ARREST, INDUCED
ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY
ARRHYTHMIA
HEART RATE
PULSE
AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM