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- Title
Coronary artery bypass surgery. Assessment of graft patency by exercise testing.
- Authors
TALBOT, S.; KILPATRICK, D.; OAKLEY, D.
- Abstract
Sixty-two patients with ischaemic heart disease who had had coronary artery bypass surgery followed by postoperative angiography were studied by treadmill exercise tests before and three months after surgery. The Frank orthogonal three lead system was used. Improvement in exercise performance demonstrated in 40 patients, was always associated with patency of at least one graft. This was true whether or not angina was the limiting symptom on exercise. All 40 patients achieved a similar or a higher maximum heart rate in the postoperative test. Twenty-two patients showed unchanged (14) or worse exercise tolerance (8) and in all but two of these patients at least one graft was blocked. In these patients the maximum heart rate usually was unchanged or less than pre-operatively. Apparent myocardial infarction between the two exercise tests occurred in 14.5% of the study group. This was usually peri-operative but it did not clearly relate to either postoperative exercise performance or to graft patency. Although improvement in ST segment changes on maximal exercise testing was suggestive of ‘complete revascularization’, ST segment changes were not improved in 41% of the ‘totally revascularized’ patients. While improvement in maximal exercise tolerance indicates that at least one graft is patent, failure to improve effort tolerance indicates that full revascularization has not been achieved even though one or more grafts may be patent.
- Publication
European Heart Journal, 1982, Vol 3, Issue 4, p348
- ISSN
0195-668X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/oxfordjournals.eurheartj.a061317