Background: Cardiac surgery can cause similar inflammatory reactions with infection; antibacterial treatment may be inappropriately used. Early and accurate diagnosis of infection still is a difficult problem worldwide. Procalcitonin (PCT) helps to identify sepsis caused by bacterial infections. However, its application in the diagnosis of pulmonary infections after off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCABG) has not been well studied. We investigated the early predictive value of PCT for the diagnosis of pulmonary infections after OPCABG. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data, including conditions in the intensive care unit, postoperative complications, mortality rate, plasma PCT in the morning on the first postoperative day, routine white blood cell (WBC) count, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels of patients who underwent elective OPCABG. Patients were divided into an infection group and a noninfection group, according to the occurrence of pulmonary infections. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the predictive value of PCT for the diagnosis of postsurgical infections. Results: In total, 131 patients who underwent OPCABG were included, of whom 23 (17.6%) developed pulmonary infections. The plasma PCT level significantly was higher in the infection group than in the noninfection group (6.0 ± 6.3 ng/ml vs. 2.0 ± 2.2 ng/ml, P = 0.007). WBC and hs-CRP values were not significantly different between the infection group and the noninfection group (12.3 ± 3.9×109/L vs. 11.1 ± 2.8×109/L, P = 0.171 and 12.4 ± 0.7 mg/L vs. 12.4 ± 0.8 mg/L, P = 0.903, respectively). The area under the ROC for predicting pulmonary infections after OPCABG by plasma PCT was 0.783 (P < 0.001, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.674–0.893), with a cut-off value of 3.55 ng/ml, a sensitivity of 0.609, and a specificity of 0.861. Conclusion: From our study results, we postulate that PCT has a high early predictive value for the diagnosis of pulmonary infections after OPCABG.

Background: Vasopressin can constrict peripheral arteries without constricting the pulmonary artery. Theoretically, vasopressin is suitable for the perioperative treatment of pulmonary hypertension. Few studies have investigated the use of pituitrin (a substitute for vasopressin) after cardiac defect repair surgery. This study aimed to analyze the effect of pituitrin on hemodynamics and to determine whether pituitrin can be used after surgical repair in adult patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension-congenital heart disease (PAH-CHD). Methods: A pulmonary artery catheter was used in all the patients for hemodynamic monitoring. Hemodynamic parameters were recorded before and at 0.5 h, 1 h, 6 h, 12 h and 24 h after pituitrin administration. The changes in the hemodynamic parameters before and after pituitrin use were analyzed through repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: A total of 110 patients with PAH-CHD underwent repair surgery; 23 patients were included in further analysis, including 11 with atrial septal defect, 9 with ventricular septal defect, and 3 with patent ductus arteriosus. Ten (43.5%) were men, with a mean age of 29.4 ± 6.8 years. Hemodynamic parameters before and after the oxygen test were as follows: radial artery oxygen saturation, 91.5% ± 4.4 vs. 97.9 ± 2.4%; pulmonary vascular resistance, 10.5 ± 1.8 Wood units (wu) vs. 5 ± 1.2 wu; systemic-pulmonary blood flow ratio (QP/QS), 1.1 ± 0.2 vs. 2.1 ± 0.9. With prolonged use, the systolic blood pressure of the radial artery increased significantly (P = 0.001), that of the pulmonary artery decreased significantly (P = 0.009), and RP/s decreased significantly (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Pituitrin as an alternative to vasopressin can increase arterial pressure, decrease pulmonary artery pressure, and reduce the pulmonary artery pressure/arterial pressure ratio after repair surgery in adult patients with PAH-CHD.