Association of Post-operative Systolic Blood Pressure Variability With Mortality After Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

Background: Blood pressure variability (BPV) has long been considered a risk factor for cardiovascular events. We aimed to investigate whether post-operative systolic BPV was associated with early and late all-cause mortality in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods: Clinical variables and blood pressure records within the first 24 h in the post-operative intensive care unit stay from 4,509 patients operated on between 2001 and 2012 were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC-III) database. BPV was measured as the coefficient of the variability of systolic blood pressure, and we compared patients in the highest quartile with patients in the other three quartiles. Results: After full adjustment, patients in the highest quartile of BPV were at a higher risk of intensive care unit mortality (OR = 2.02, 95% CI: 1.11–3.69), 30-day mortality (OR = 1.92, 95% CI: 1.22–3.02), and 90-day mortality (HR = 1.64, 95% CI: 1.19–2.27). For 2,892 patients with a 4-year follow-up, the association between a higher post-operative BPV and the risk of 4-year mortality was not significant (HR = 1.17, 95% CI: 0.96–1.42). The results were supported by the comparison of survival curves and remained generally consistent in the subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that in patients undergoing CABG, a higher post-operative BPV was associated with a higher risk of early mortality while the association was not significant for late mortality. Post-operative BPV can support doctors in identifying patients with potential hemodynamic instability and making timely clinical decisions.