Early to midterm results with the radial artery in coronary artery bypass grafting following autotransplantation without pharmacological manipulation.

Background: In our unit when the radial artery is used as a conduit for myocardial revascularization routine, postoperative calcium-channel blockade is not practised. To preserve the radial artery, it is freed from the surrounding structures together with its venae commitantes and then left, in situ, in circulation, until needed for grafting. We evaluated the early to midterm patency of the radial artery using this strategy in our patients.

Illness representations of coronary artery disease: an empirical examination of the Illness Perceptions Questionnaire (IPQ) in patients undergoing surgery, angioplasty and medication.

Background: This study sought to validate empirically, through factor analysis, the theoretically developed Illness Perceptions Questionnaire (IPQ) measure of illness representations, and investigated how illness representations varied within an illness condition between different treatments.

Methods: Two hundred and fourteen coronary artery disease (CAD) patients, 70 of whom were undergoing medication, 71 to undergo angioplasty and 73 to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), completed the New Zealand Heart Attack Recovery Project version of the IPQ. The core cognitive illness representation statement responses were subject to principal components analyses (PCA), with oblique rotation.

Leucocyte-depleting arterial line filtration does not reduce myocardial injury assessed by Troponin T during routine coronary artery bypass grafting using crossclamp fibrillation.

Introduction: Leucocyte filtration can reduce inflammation and end-organ damage. The aim of this study was to test the cardioprotective effect of systemic leucocyte filtration during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) for coronary revascularization.

Methods: Sixty patients scheduled for elective coronary artery bypass grafting were prospectively randomised to receive either a test leucocyte-depleting (LD) filter or a control standard arterial line filter in the CPB circuit.

Cognitive change 5 years after coronary artery bypass surgery.

A longitudinal study of cognitive function after coronary artery bypass surgery examined 107 participants using 11 tests, preoperatively and at 6 days, 8 weeks, and 5 years after surgery. The overall neuropsychological (NP) change score declined at 6 days, showed some recovery at 8 weeks, and declined again at 5 years. The number of microemboli recorded during surgery, postoperative short-term cognitive change, and degree of recovery at 8 weeks were identified as predictors of change in NP score to 5 years.

Tubular proteinuria and enzymuria following open heart surgery.

Objective: We investigated the effect of cardiac surgery on a marker of tubular damage, an enzyme called neutral endopeptidase (NEP), and on a marker of tubular function, retinol binding protein (RBP). Markers of tubular damage or function are useful in the early detection of acute renal failure and help identify the risk factors for this disease. We also examined if colloid interfered with NEP measurement.