Biomaker evaluation for major adverse cardiovascular event development in patients undergoing cardiac Surgery

The postoperative period of cardiac surgery (CS) is associated with the development of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs). However, the evaluation of MACE after CS by means of biomarkers is poorly developed. We aimed to evaluate postoperative biomarkers that could be associated with MACE.

Two Hundred and ten patients who underwent CS were enrolled during the study period. The diagnosis of MACE was defined as the presence of at least one of the following complications: acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke presented during intensive care unit (ICU) stay, and 30-day mortality after CS. High-sensitive troponin T (hs-TnT), C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, interleukin-6, and immature platelet fraction (IPF) were measured on ICU admission and after 24 h. The difference between both measurements (Δ) was calculated to assess their association with MACE. Early infected patients (n=13) after CS were excluded from final analysis.

The most frequent surgery was single-valve surgery (n=83; 38%), followed by coronary artery bypass graft (n=72; 34%). Postoperative MACE was diagnosed in 31 (14.8%) patients. Biomarker dynamics showed elevated values at 24 h compared with those at ICU admission in patients with MACE versus no-MACE. Multivariate analysis showed that ΔIPF (OR: 1.47; 95% CI: 1.110-1.960; p=0.008) and Δhs-TnT (OR: 1.001; 95% CI: 1.0002-1.001; p=0.008) were independently associated with MACE.

These findings suggest that postoperative ΔIPF and Δhs-TnT may be useful biomarkers for the identification of patients at risk of MACE development.