Postoperative Angiographic Follow Up
Early postoperative and 1-year follow-up angiographies were performed as a postoperative evaluation strategy for CABG patients at our institution, regardless of the presence or absence of anginal symptoms. Those patients who had died, had refused angiographic evaluation, or had renal function impairment were excluded from the angiographic follow-up. However, patients receiving renal replacement therapy were included in the angiographic follow-up. Occluded composite graft was defined as distal graft and distal native grafted coronary artery flow not opacified as shown by graft angiography, and also retrograde graft flow not visualized by native coronary angiography. All the early occluded conduits were evaluated by coronary angiography. Of the 53 patients who showed occluded SV conduits, 45 patients were re-evaluated by 1-year postoperative coronary angiography. One patient who had been reluctant to undergo coronary angiographic follow-up evaluation had undergone multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) angiography as an alternative evaluation method and showed occluded SV anastomoses as well. The coronary angiograms and MDCT angiograms were reviewed by consensus of 2 specialists in each study.