Coronary artery calcium progression after coronary artery bypass grafting surgery

OBJECTIVES: Accelerated atherosclerosis is a well-established phenomenon after coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG). In this study, we analysed coronary artery calcium (CCS) progression after CABG. METHODS: We retrospectively measured the CCS Agatston score (AS), volume score (VS) and mass score (MS) of 39 patients before and after CABG. The annualised CCS change and annualised CCS percent change of each coronary artery, coronary artery segments proximal and distal to anastomosis were analysed. RESULTS: Mean age at the time of the surgery was 59.8±8.5 years. Follow-up period between the first and second CT scans was 6.7±2.8 (range, 1.1–12.8) years. Annualised CCS percent change (AS, VS and MS) of the coronary segments proximal-to-anastomosis did not differ from that of the non-grafted coronary arteries as follow: segments proximal-to-anastomosis: median (Q1–Q3) 12.8 (5.0–37.4), 13.7 (6.1–41.1) and 14.9 (5.4–53.7), left main coronary artery 12.6 (7.4–43.8), 22.0 (8.1–44.4) and 18.2 (7.3–57.4), non-grafted left circumflex artery: 13.5 (4.4–38.1), 10.5 (2.9–45.2) and 11.5 (7.1–47.9) and non-grafted right coronary artery: 31.4 (14.4–74.5), 25.2 (16.7–62.0) and 31.3 (23.8–85.6), respectively. Likewise, annualised percent change (AS, VS and MS) was similar between the native coronary arteries. Multivariate regression analysis showed that diabetes mellitus was the only predictor of annualised percent progression of the total CCS of >15% (HR, 8.12; 95% CI, 1.05 to 26.6; p=0.04). CONCLUSION: The CCS post-CABG did not follow an accelerated progression process. Among coronary artery disease risk factors, diabetes mellitus is the only predictor of annualised CCS percent progression of >15% post-CABG.