Trimetazidine may protect the myocardium during cardiac surgery

Trimetazidine is an anti-ischemic agent with cardioprotective effects. The purpose of this double-blind, controlled, prospective randomized study was to investigate the possible effects of the preoperative use of trimetazidine on the biochemical markers of myocardial injury during open heart surgery and to determine if it has any myocardial protective effects.

Thirty patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery, received either trimetazidine (study group, n = 15) or not (control group, n = 15). Pretreatment began 2 weeks before the operation with trimetazidine (60 mg/day orally), and the control group received no medication. We measured the levels of serum creatine kinase (CK), CK isoenzyme MB (CK-MB), myoglobin, and troponin T in venous blood samples obtained before and after the operation to evaluate the effect of this drug against myocardial damage. We also took serial blood samples from the radial artery and the coronary sinus before the institution of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and at 2 and 15 minutes after the removal of the cross-clamp to measure lactate levels and calculate the lactate extraction of the myocardium.

Postoperative levels of myoglobin, troponin T, CK, and CK-MB were significantly lower in the trimetazidine group than in the control group (P < .05). There was also a significant difference in the values for the lactate extraction calculation between the groups at minute 2 after the removal of the cross-clamp (P < .05).

We conclude that pretreatment with trimetazidine has some beneficial effects in protecting the myocardium and decreasing myocardial injury during the cardioplegic arrest period in open heart surgery without affecting postoperative hemodynamics.