Significance of cardiac weight in patients having coronary artery bypass grafting for angina pectoris

Abstract

Cardiac weight at necropsy in 211 patients who had coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for angina pectoris, and its relation to early (<60 days) and late (>60 days) death after CABG was sought. The 121 patients dying early had a lower mean heart weight than did the 90 patients dying late (444 ± 94 vs 498 ± 107 g; p :0.001). The mean heart weight of the 85 men dying early was less than that of the 75 men dying late (472 vs 506 g; p <0.05), and the mean heart weight of the 36 women dying early was less than that of the 15 women dying late (377 vs 459 g; p <0.005). Most patients with hearts of normal weight were in the early death group: of the 17 women with hearts of normal weight (⩽350 g), 16 (94%) died early (p <0.01), and of the 34 men with hearts of normal weight (⩽400 g), 21 (62%) died early (difference not significant). Conversely, most patients in the late death group had hearts of increased weight: of the 15 women dying late, 14 (93%) had hearts of increased weight, and of the 75 men dying late, 62 (83%) had hearts of increased weight. The mean cardiac weight of the 125 patients with left ventricular scars was larger than that of the 86 patients without scars (492 vs 432 g; p <0.01), and these differences were observed within each sex and in both early (463 vs 425 g) and late (520 vs 448 g) death groups. This study suggests that patients with normal or near normal sized hearts have a higher early mortality after CABG than do persons with hearts of increased weight.