BACKGROUND Some prior studies have suggested that the time to cardiac surgery after cardiac catheterization is inversely related to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI). However, these studies, because of the small number of patients, were unable to adequately account for patient case-mix and included both those undergoing elective surgery and those undergoing urgent surgery. METHODS AND R...

BACKGROUND The right ventricle (RV) may be selectively impaired following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. We tested this hypothesis in two study parts: a prospective cohort undergoing CABG, and a retrospective cross-sectional cohort of heart-failure patients with and without a history of CABG. METHODS In the prospective study, 20 patients undergoing CABG had echocardiography prio...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this work was to determine whether mitral valve (MV) annuloplasty benefits patients with moderate/severe (3+/4+) functional ischemic mitral regurgitation (MR) who undergo coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). BACKGROUND Mitral regurgitation is a strong predictor of poor outcomes in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy; whether correcting it at the time of CABG improve...

OBJECTIVES The study compared the adjusted risk for developing atrial fibrillation (AF) after minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass surgery (MIDCAB) and coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation results in increased morbidity and delays hospital discharge after CABG. Recently, MIDCAB has been explored as an alternative to CABG. Because of differenc...

OBJECTIVES Whether patients with recent onset of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) might benefit of epicardial atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation concomitant to coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is not known. The aim of this prospective, randomized, single-centre pilot study is the comparison of patients with first diagnosed AF submitted to CABG and treated with and without epicardial pulmo...

BACKGROUND The most appropriate treatment for patients with ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) is often debated. We compared the survival rates of patients with IMR undergoing different treatment strategies, namely: medical therapy, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), and CABG + mitral valve (MV) surgery. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients undergoing c...

OBJECTIVES The optimal strategy for coronary revascularization in patients with renal dysfunction remains undefined. As coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) may be associated with higher mortality, less invasive percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may be preferred. To date, only limited information has been published regarding the effects of severe renal dysfunction on the outcome after ...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in "real-world" patients unsuitable for the alternative treatment. BACKGROUND No data are available on the risk profile and outcomes of patients that can only undergo PCI or CABG. METHODS In the SYNTAX (Synergy between PCI with TAXUS and Cardiac Sur...

OBJECTIVES We compared the 5-year outcomes of diabetic patients with multivessel disease treated with sirolimus-eluting stents (SES), bare-metal stents (BMS), and coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) enrolled in the ARTS (Arterial Revascularization Therapy Study) I and II studies. BACKGROUND Diabetes is an established risk factor for major adverse cardiac events after revascularization...

BACKGROUND We aimed to compare the outcomes of patients who underwent carotid artery stenting (CAS) followed by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with the outcomes of those who underwent isolated CABG without carotid intervention. METHODS In this prospective cohort study, conducted between March 2007 and February 2010, all patients who had significant carotid artery stenosis (>70%) and w...