Diabetic patients have a mortality rate during the 2-year period after CABG that is about twice that of nondiabetic patients during both the early and late phase after the operation.

The greatest improvement in quality of life after coronary artery bypass grafting appeared in those patients with the most impaired exercise capacity, those with the most severe angina pectoris, and women. Improvement in exercise capacity was greatest in patients with the poorest preoperative exercise capacity and in men. These findings indicate that exercise testing is of limited value as a measure of quality of life and that assessment by a questionnaire has a complementary place.

We describe the 2- and 5-year prognoses following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in relation to smoking habits among consecutive patients being operated on in western Sweden during a 3-year period. Among the 2,121 patients, 10.2% admitted smoking at coronary angiography as compared with 7.5% 2 years after CABG (NS). Among smokers, the mortality during the subsequent 2 years was 8.9% as compared with 6.5% for exsmokers and 7.3% for never smokers (NS). During the 5-year follow-up, smokers had a mortality of 18.8% as compared with 13.6% for exsmokers and 12.5% for never smokers (p = 0.03). When correcting for dissimilarities in previous history, smoking was a strongly significant independent (p < 0.0001) predictor of 5-year mortality.

Background: β-Blockers reduce sympathetic tone, increase vagal tone and improve prognosis in ischaemic heart disease. Nitroglycerin, being a vasodilator, may theoretically have an opposite effect and worsen the prognosis. The purpose of the present study was to analyse heart rate variability (HRV), which reflects autonomic tone, in angina patients on isosorbide-5-mononitrate (IS-5-MN) and/or metoprolol. Methods and Results: Thirty-two patients (32–81 years old), with recently developed angina (median duration: 3 months), showing no other disease and on no drugs, were Holter-monitored 24–48 h at baseline and after 4–5 days on IS-5-MN (mean daily dose: 33 mg), on metoprolol (mean daily dose: 184 mg) and on the combined treatment. Recordings were analysed on the Marquette Series 8000 Holter scanner. Both IS-5-MN and metoprolol significantly reduced myocardial ischaemia (ST integral) and ventricular tachycardias. Metoprolol induced significant changes in the following parameters (baseline versus metoprolol): high-frequency peak 9 ± 4 versus 11 ± 4 ms (p < 0.001), low-to-high frequency ratio 2.5 ± 0.6 versus 1.9 ± 0.6 (p < 0.0001), root mean square of RR interval difference 23 ± 7 versus 31 ± 9 ms (p < 0.0001), RR intervals differing more than 50 ms from the preceding one 4.8 ± 3.9 versus 10.0 ± 7.0% (p < 0.0001), mean of all 5-min standard deviations 50 ± 12 versus 56 ± 11 ms (p < 0.001) and mean RR interval 819 ± 90 versus 1,019 ± 120 ms (p < 0.00001). The combined treatment caused approximately the same HRV changes as metoprolol alone. IS-5-MN had no significant effect on any HRV parameter, neither alone nor in combination with metoprolol. Conclusion: A clinically effective dose of metoprolol had potentially positive effects on HRV with increase in vagal and decrease in sympathetic tone while IS-5-MN had no effect on HRV, neither positive nor negative, neither alone nor in combination with metoprolol.

To describe the prognosis during 2 years after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in relation to occurrence of and time since a previous acute myocardial infarction (AMI), data of all patients in western Sweden who underwent CABG without simultaneous valve surgery in the period June 1988-June 1991 were evaluated. In all, 2120 patients were included in the analyses. Of these, 1296 (61%) had a history of AMI and 127 (6%) had suffered an AMI within the last month before CABG. Mortality during the first 30 days after CABG was for patients with no previous AMI, previous AMI > 30 days prior to CABG, and previous AMI < or = 30 days prior to CABG 2.4%, 4.1%, and 5.5%, respectively (p < 0.05). The corresponding figures for the period between 30 days and 2 years after CABG were 3.6%, 4.4%, and 3.4% respectively (NS). In a multivariate analysis among patients with a previous AMI, a recent infarction (< or = 30 days prior to CABG) did not turn out as an independent predictor of death during 2 years of follow-up. A history of AMI was associated with increased mortality during the first 30 days but not thereafter, but recent AMI was not an independent predictor of total 2-year mortality.