Abstract PR402

Abstract

Background & Objectives: The incidence of perioperative cardiovascular complication is remarkable and the occurrence of postoperative myocardial ischemia within the first two days of surgery implies a nine-fold increase in risk for perioperative in-hospital cardiac complications. ECG is considered the cheapest and non-invasive tool to assess the patient immediately postoperative. However, the reliability of using such a simple tool is not clear yet. The aim of this study is to compare between the ECG 12 leads, as a standard tool, and the high sensitive Troponin (hs-TnT) level changes to predict early myocardial ischemic changes postoperatively. Materials & Methods: Thirty nine patients are recruited in this study. Parameters BP, HR, RR, PSO2, ECG and hs-TnT have been measured immediately 1 hr and 24 hr postoperatively. The respective changes were correlated to medical history, perioperative parameters and the occurrence of myocardial ischemic changes. ECG reading has been performed by a blind observer. Results: There was increase of hs-TNT level in about 18% of the patients and 23% of the patients showed ECG myocardial ischemic changes. Patients who showed ischemic changes via ECG did not correlate significantly with b hs-TNT changes. Postoperative hs-TNT measurements demonstrated significant increase between 1 hr and 24 hr postoperative (p>0.01). The diagnostic sensitivity for hc-TNT to that of ECG was very low (11.1%) with high specificity (83.3%). Conclusion: In this study, the variations in the hs-TNT levels could predict early myocardial ischemic changes, though, ECG still representing the more sensitive diagnostic tool to predict myocardial ischemic changes during the first 24 hr postoperatively.