Increased preoperative C-reactive protein levels are associated with inhospital death after coronary artery bypass surgery.

Increased C-reactive protein (CRP) is a predictor of cardiovascular risk, but its influence on outcomes after coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG) is still incompletely studied. We studied the association between preoperative CRP and inhospital death after CABG. Patients with acute or chronic infectious or inflammatory disorders, autoimmune diseases, cancer, and prior cardiac surgery were excluded. Seventy-six patients were studied [27.6% with elevated CRP (>3 mg/l)]. Elevated CRP was more frequently found in patients who died than in those who survived (83.3% vs 17.1%, p = 0.003); mean CRP levels were, respectively, 6.5 ± 3.4 vs 2.4 ± 3.5 mg/l (p = 0.03). The hazard ratio of death was 11.7 for elevated CRP, and the ROC curve for the discrimination of death with CRP had an area under the curve of 0.82. An improvement to mortality risk prediction following CABG may be offered by the preoperative analysis of CRP.