The use of MCPB was associated statistically insignificantly with less retinal microemboli compared to CCPB. MCPB was complicated by excess bleeding and need for transfusion. The feasibility of MCPB techniques in valve surgery requires further studies.

Background: The administration of insulin has been shown to exert cardioprotective and immunomodulatory properties. Ischemia and inflammation are typical features of acute coronary syndrome, thus it was hypothesized that high-dose glucoseinsulin-potassium (GIK) treatment could suppress the systemic inflammatory reaction and attenuate myocardial ischemiareperfusion injury in patients with unstable angina pectoris after urgent coronary artery bypass surgery. Methods: Forty patients with unstable angina pectoris scheduled for urgent coronary artery bypass surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass were randomly assigned to receive either high-dose insulin treatment (short-acting insulin 1 IU/kg/h with 30% glucose 1.5 ml/kg/h administered separately) or control treatment (saline). Blood glucose levels were targeted to 6.0-8.0 mmol/l in both groups by adjusting the rate of glucose infusion in the GIK group and by additional insulin in the control group as needed. Results: High-dose insulin treatment was associated with significantly lower average C-reactive protein (23.8 vs. 40.1 mg/l, P ¼ 0.008) and free fatty acid levels (0.22 vs. 0.41 mmol/l, P ¼ < 0.001) post-operatively. Average blood glucose levels were comparable

Abstract-This paper evaluates the accuracy of the pulse transit time method for determining diastolic blood pressure using intra-arterial blood pressure as a reference. First, the paper describes the method. Then it discusses two sets of measurements which were carried out to determine the accuracy of the method with cardiac operated patients and healthy young volunteers. The thus obtained accuracies were +0.7 mmHg ± 10.7 mmHg for the cardiac patients and -6.6 mmHg ± 10.5 mmHg for the young volunteers, respectively.

Abstract-This paper presents and evaluates some methods to improve the accuracy of systolic blood pressure measurements based on pulse waveform. A set of measurement was carried out with elderly cardiac surgery patients. The experiments comprised two to five measurements per patient, each including a one-minute follow-up, after which the cuff was slowly inflated over the systolic blood pressure. Systolic pressure errors were defined and correlations with other specific values, like pressure rise time, pulse wave velocity, systolic pressure, augmentation, arm circumference and body mass index were calculated. These indices may be affected by arterial stiffness, a common source of errors in blood pressure measurements. With a value of -0.52, the character which correlated best with systolic error was found to be the peak level of the first derivative of the pressure signal. Also rise time (10%…90%) exhibits a moderate correlation, +0.49. On the other hand, pulse wave velocity, body mass index, cardiac output, peripheral and intra-arterial temperature do not seem to correlate with systolic blood pressure error. It is also noteworthy that indices describing the rising edge of the pressure pulse correlated better with systolic pressure error than those describing the falling part. Using the first derivative peak level method, accuracy improved slightly.