[Analysis of preoperative predictors influencing early patency of coronary artery grafts].

Under the recent trend of popular use of arterial grafts, we investigated the predictors of coronary artery bypass graft patency using modified scoring system of Greenlane hospital. A total of 127 grafts including 58 arterial grafts (53 in situ ITA, 3 free ITA, and 3 GEA) and 69 saphenous vein grafts were placed in 43 patients for average of 2.95 grafts per patient during the period from April 1990 to December 1991. Early patency of arterial grafts (98.3%) were significantly better than that of saphenous vein grafts (91.3%) (p less than 0.01). With regard to recipient vessels, both coronary flow-demand score (= score of the size of perfused myocardium x viability index x index of proximal stenotic lesion/3) and distal run-off score influenced early graft patency significantly. It seems that better patency of arterial grafts were reflected on the bias that these grafts were preferentially placed on larger coronary arteries such as the left anterior descending artery, not on the advantage of arterial grafts.