Preoperative Echocardiographic Parameters of Diastolic Dysfunction Did Not Provide a Predictive Value for Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation in Lung and Esophageal Cancer Surgery

ObjectiveTo evaluate the predictive value of preoperative transthoracic echocardiography in the development of postoperative atrial fibrillation after non-cardiac thoracic surgery.DesignThis was a retrospective study.SettingAcademic hospital.ParticipantsA total of 703 adult patients with non-small cell lung cancer.InterventionsNone.Measurements and Main ResultsRetrospective data of 177 non-cardiac thoracic surgical oncologic patients undergoing lung or esophageal cancer surgery with preoperative transthoracic echocardiograms (TTE) (within 30 days before surgery) were analyzed. The Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to evaluate the difference in continuous variables. Fisher’s exact test or the chi-square test was used to evaluate the association between two categoric variables. Logistic regression models were used for multivariate analysis to include important and significant covariates. Among the demographic and echocardiographic variables measured age, systemic hypertension, e` septal, e` lateral and E/e` ratio were significantly different between patients who would develop postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) and those who did not. The logistic regression models only identify age as a predictor factor of POAF.ConclusionsThese results were similar to those published elsewhere on POAF incidence and risk factors. The preoperative echocardiographic variables in this study did not provide predictive value for POAF in non-cardiac thoracic surgery.