Intraoperative transit-time flow measurement and high-frequency ultrasound in coronary artery bypass grafting: impact in off versus on-pump, arterial versus venous grafting and cardiac territory grafted.

Objectives: Despite society guideline recommendations, intraoperative high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) and transit-time flow measurement (TTFM) use in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has not been widely adopted worldwide. This retrospective review of the REQUEST (REgistry for QUality assESsmenT with Ultrasound Imaging and TTFM in Cardiac Bypass Surgery) study assesses the impact of protocolled high-frequency ultrasound/TTFM use in specific technical circumstances of CABG.

Methods: Three REQUEST study sub-analyses were examined: (i) For off-pump (OPCAB) versus on-pump (ONCAB) procedures: strategy changes from preoperative plans for the aorta, conduits, coronary targets and graft revisions; and for all REQUEST patients, revision rates in: (ii) arterial versus venous grafts; and (iii) grafts to different cardiac territories.

Intraoperative surgical strategy changes in patients with chronic and end-stage renal disease undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting.

Objectives: Factors such as more diffuse atherosclerosis, plaque instability and accelerated vascular calcification in patients with chronic and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) can potentially present intraoperative challenges in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures. We evaluated whether patients with chronic and ESRD experienced more surgical strategy changes and/or graft revisions than patients with normal renal function when undergoing CABG procedures according to a protocol for intraoperative high-frequency ultrasound and transit-time flow measurement (TTFM).

Methods: Outcomes of CABG for patients with chronic and ESRD and patients with normal renal function enrolled in the multicentre prospective REQUEST (REgistry for QUality assESsmenT with Ultrasound Imaging and TTFM in Cardiac Bypass Surgery) study were compared retrospectively.

Recurrence of functional mitral regurgitation in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy undergoing mitral valve repair: how to predict it.

This study was aimed at identifying predictive variables for recurrence of mitral regurgitation (MR) in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) undergoing mitral valve (MV) repair. From January 1997 to December 2005, 142 patients with DCM, 105 (73.9%) ischemic and 37 (26.