Diabetes is associated with altered vascular responses, and diabetic patients demonstrate increased morbidity and mortality after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). We tested whether endothelin (ET)-1 levels in this patient population differed from those in nondiabetic subjects after CABG. Of 14 consecutive patients who underwent CABG by the same surgeon, 7 had type 2 diabetes and 7 were nondiabetic. The two groups did not differ significantly in preoperative ejection fraction, number of vessels bypassed, cross-clamp time, or Parsonnet's score. Coronary sinus blood samples were obtained before cardioplegic arrest and then obtained at 1 and 15 min after each of two reperfusion periods: reperfusion A (native coronary perfusion plus the left internal mammary artery), reperfusion B (saphenous vein graft perfusion). ET- 1 was significantly increased at all reperfusion time points in diabetic patients compared with nondiabetic patients. In diabetic patients, reperfusion after CABG can trigger the release of ET-1, which may be a contributing factor in the increased cardiac morbidity seen in this patient population.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/avadhesh_sharma/50/
This article was published in Diabetes, Volume 47, Issue 7, Pages 1161-1163.
The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/diabetes.47.7.1161.Copyright © 1998 American Diabetes Association.