Preoperative angiography and intraoperative transit time flow measurement to detect coronary graft patency in reoperations: an integrated approach--a case report.

Coronary angiography is the gold standard for preoperative diagnosis of coronary artery disease. In reoperative coronary artery surgery the physiologic significance of suspect lesions by angiography can be confirmed by direct intraoperative measurement of blood flow in the old grafts; such interpretation can prevent unnecessary graft revisions.

Graft patency verification in coronary artery bypass grafting: principles and clinical applications of transit time flow measurement.

The increasing popularity of beating-heart coronary surgery has raised concerns and doubts about the quality of the coronary anastomoses performed. Intraoperative graft patency verification methods are not commonly used after coronary surgery and, most of the cardiac surgeons, rely on the simple clinical signs (electrocardiogram tracings and hemodynamic stability) to make a diagnosis of coronary graft occlusion. New transit time ultrasound based methods for graft-patency verification have been adopted in many centers during beating-heart and traditional bypass grafting.

Graft revision after transit time flow measurement in off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting.

Objective: To determine whether coronary graft patency can be predicted by transit time flow measurement (TTFM).

Methods: From May 1 1997 to December 31 1998, TTFM was prospectively evaluated in 409 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) without cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). All grafts (1145) were tested with TTFM.