Ischemic Cardiac Event

An estimated 92.1 million Americans have at least one type of cardiovascular disease (CAD).1  Even though death rates due to CAD have declined, at least 2200 Americans die each day of CAD. 2 In the U.S. at least 50 million operations occur every year and up to 4% are associated with adverse cardiac events. 3There are many identifiable risk factors for cardiac disease such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, smoking, and high cholesterol. 1In addition, there are non-modifiable risks for cardiac disease; these include age, gender, family history, and homocysteine levels. 4 Hypotension and tachycardia are the most common causes of ischemic cardiac events in the intra-operative phase. The failure to detect myocardial injury early on may contribute to complications as long as 30 days post-operatively. Typically, ischemic findings on electrocardiography and elevated troponin measurements have been used as potential indicators of ischemia or myocardial injury after non-cardiac surgery in the peri-operative setting. In the treatment of ischemic cardiac events, intensified medical therapy (antiplatelet, beta-blocker, ACE inhibitor, or a statin) in patients who suffered from a troponin elevation in the postoperative period reduces the risk of having a major cardiac event within a year.  This review contains 1 figure, 2 tables, and 74 references.  Keywords: Myocardial Injury after Non Cardiac Surgery (MINS), Perioperative ischemia, Troponin assay, VISION study, Coronary artery disease