[Strategy in the care of cardiac surgical patients: evaluation of the sense of coherence].

Sense of coherence is the construct proposed by Antonovsky to assess individuals' capacity of dealing with stress. This study aimed to measure the sense of coherence and evaluate its association to sociodemographic variables and the use of psychotropic drugs among 127 patients in the preoperative period of cardiac surgeries. The mean value of sense of coherence was 149.

[Health-related quality of life before and six months after coronary artery bypass graft surgery].

Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery aims at offering a better health-related quality of life (HRQL), relieving symptoms and increasing survival. The objectives were to compare HRQL before CABG and six months after it and to evaluate its relation concerning participants' age, sex, schooling and marital status. Descriptive and longitudinal study which used the SF-36 to evaluate HRQL.