CORRELATION OF POSTOPERATIVE CARDIAC TROPONIN I WITH LENGTH OF INTENSIVE CARE UNIT (ICU) STAY AFTER CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS GRAFT SURGERY(CABG)

Objective: To determine the correlation of mean postoperative cardiac troponin Ilevels and mean duration of length of ICU stay in CABG surgery patients. Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried out at the National Institute ofCardiovascular Diseases Karachi from November 2012 to May 2013. Patientswere selected based on specified criteria utilizing non probability consecutivesampling. Twenty four hours after CABG surgery, cardiac troponin I levels weremeasured and the length of ICU stay was determined for each patient. Results: Total number of patients were 87 including 58 male (66.67%) patients.Mean age of patient was 54.71±6.92 years with troponin I levels of 0.47±1.90μg/l and the length of ICU stay of 75.86 ± 43.59 hours. About 57(65.52%)patients had triple vessel coronary artery disease (CAD) and 30 (34.48%)patients had two vessel coronary artery disease. In our study the Pearson'scorrelation coefficient was r = 0.766 between mean postoperative cardiactroponin I levels and length of ICU stay in patients who underwent CABG surgery.The p value was less than 0.05 and the correlation was significant at 0.01 level. Conclusion: The mean postoperative cardiac troponin I levels and mean durationof length of ICU stay in CABG surgery patients are highly positively correlated.