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.