Does pre-operative assessment of cardiac function by radionuclide angiocardiography predict postoperative death from cardiac failure in patients undergoing elective aortic surgery?
Pre-operative radionuclide angiocardiography identifying LVEF <30% strongly predicts postoperative cardiac failure death in patients undergoing elective aortic surgery.
A consecutive series of 41 patients undergoing elective aortic surgery had pre-operative assessment of cardiac function by radionuclide angiocardiography. Their subsequent progress was monitored. There were 4 patients whose pre-operative left ventricular ejection fraction was less than 30 per cent and 3 of these patients died of cardiac failure postoperatively. There was only 1 death from cardiac failure amongst the 37 patients whose pre-operative left ventricular ejection fraction was less than 30 per cent. Radionuclide angiocardiography is an accurate indicator of myocardial function of patients before major aortic surgery.
Mosley et al. (Fri,) studied this question.