Inflammatory continuum in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation after coronary bypass surgery

Atrial fibrillation (AF) after coronary bypass surgery is recorded in 20- 60% of patients and increase the early and long-term postoperative mortality. The aim of the review is to analyze the studies on causal relationships between damaging factors and the development of myocardial inflammation at each stage of surgical treatment in patients with multivessel coronary artery disease. In the review, myocardial inflammation is considered from the point of view of a continuum — a chronic process that originates from the coronary endothelium damage and continuously proceeds within the AF pathogenesis after coronary bypass surgery. For the first time, the concept of inflammatory continuum for postoperative AF is introduced. The review discusses the main and latest laboratory and instrumental markers of local and systemic inflammatory response, which are informative in terms of severity and promising for improving approaches to the diagnosis and prevention of postoperative AF. The review was prepared using available materials from Russian and foreign library databases (PubMed, Medline, Web of Science and Cochrane Library). The search depth was >25 years since 1996. Based on the analysis of available studies, we concluded that inflammation is not just evidence of AF, but plays a causal role in its pathogenesis at each stage of surgical myocardial revascularization.