Left ventricular diastolic filling during coronary artery bypass surgery in patients with diabetes mellitus and/or hypertension.

To evaluate left ventricular diastolic filling (DF) using transesophageal Doppler echocardiography in 40 patients with or without diabetes mellitus and/or hypertension, we measured DF after induction of anesthesia, before and after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), and at the end of coronary artery bypass surgery (CABS). In 13 patients with complete measurements, there was no significant change in DF but diastolic filling time became shorter and peak velocity during atrial contraction increased significantly following CPB. In the other patients, the assessment of DF could be performed accurately in CABS patients without diabetes and/or hypertension, but not in CABS patients with these disorders because of a high incidence of fusion of the E-A waves, which is an indicator of impaired DF. When heart rate (HR) was more than 75 beats·min-1 (RR interval of less than 800 ms), the incidence of fusion points was significantly higher in patients with diabetes and/or hypertension than without (13 of 29s 1 of 9,P<0.05). It is suggested that a slower HR (less than 75 beat·min-1) is desirable in CABS patients with these disorders to avoid impairment of DF due to either prolonged systolic time or isovolumic relaxation time.