Can Heart Rate Variability Be a Prognostic Factor after Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery?

Imbalance in automatic cardiovascular function has been shown to increase the risk of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden death in patients with coronary artery disease and after myocardial infarction. The study evaluated preoperative heart rate variability (HRV) as an independent prognostic factor for hospitalized patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG).In this single-blind study, we enrolled 25 patients scheduled to undergo CABG. Preoperative Holter electrocardiography was used to collect linear analysis and non-linear analysis (Poincare plot analysis) data. Four patients died after the operation. We compared the HRV data of the 2 groups (expired vs. survived), and found that the data showed no statistical significance. Therefore, HRV can not be used as a prognostic factor for post-operative survival or mortality in our study with small sample size and older age.We concluded that HRV cannot be used as a prognostic factor after CABG surgery, however, continuous HRV analysis during postoperative hospitalization can predict some major cardiac events and complications.