Thyroid hormones have various effects on the
CVS which are mediated at both genomic and
non-genomic levels.[
8] Overt hyperthyroidism has
well-known effects on the CVS such as resting
tachycardia, arrhythmias (most commonly
supraventricular), thromboembolism, and heart
failure which may lead to cardiovascular and
cerebrovascular mortality, particularly in patients
with CVS diseases.[
1,
2] Most feared perioperative
complication is thyroid storm which may occur
anytime in the perioperative period with a mortality
rate of 10 to 75%.[
9] Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation is
also a serious complication of hyperthyroidism which
may occur at least once in nearly 25% of cases.[
10]
In addition, the combination of tachycardia and
hypertension may precipitate angina or myocardial
infarction in patients with underlying coronary
artery diseases.[
11,
12] In particular, untreated Graves?
disease, which is more prominent and aggressive,
may cause fatal results in these patients.
There are some reported cases with hyperthyroidism
undergoing open heart surgery with or without
premedication. Onoe et al.[13] reported that, in two
patients with known thyrotoxicosis, open heart surgery
was successfully performed by preoperative and early
postoperative anti-thyroid agents. However, in a recent
article, Bish et al.[14] found thyroid storm developing in
a patient after urgent CABG caused by Graves? disease
which was unknown before surgery and controlled by
immediate potassium iodide and thionamides through
nasogastric tube, as well as high-dose intravenous
hydrocortisone. In our study, we found no increase in the
mortality rate in overt hyperthyroid patients, although
we observed increased arrhythmia in this patient group
after surgery, compared to the hypothyroid group,
which was not statistically significant.
Similarly, overt hypothyroidism may cause many of
the signs and symptoms associated with heart failure
including dyspnea, edema, cardiomegaly, and effusions
and increase the risk of coronary artery disease.[3]
However, these patients have a lower incidence of
angina and myocardial infection, perhaps secondary
to the reduction in cardiac metabolic demands. The patients usually have hypertension due to alterations
in the peripheral vascular resistance and an increased
risk of ventricular arrhythmias.[4] In untreated overt
hypothyroidism patients, acute thyroid hormone
replacement therapy may worsen myocardial ischemia
due to increased myocardial oxygen consumption.[15]
There are still conflicting data regarding the safety
of CABG in untreated patients. Some authors have
reported no adverse effects in patients with untreated
mild-to-moderate hypothyroidism undergoing cardiac
surgery,[16-18] whereas some others have suggested
adverse effects such as severe myxedema after
cardiac surgery, leading to significant hemodynamic
compromise.[19] Some reports have also shown that
percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty
(PTCA) can be a better choice before CABG in
hypothyroid patients who have a higher incidence
of complications, if there is no time to render them
euthyroid.[20,21] In our study, one patient with overt
hypothyroidism who was operated emergently died
due to critical coronary obstruction and aortic valve
failure. However, the incidence of other complications
was not higher in the overt hypothyroid patients,
compared to the control group.
Subclinical thyroid diseases continue to be an issue
in the preoperative evaluation of patients and are more
common than overt thyroid disorders. The prevalence
ranges between 2 and 8% in the general population
and higher in women over the age of 60.[22] Subclinical
thyroid dysfunctions may develop after a contrast
agent administration during PTCA or CAG.[23] In a
recent study Marraccini et al.[24] reported that thyroid
dysfunction was frequent in patients who underwent
CAG, and low T3 syndrome was the predominant
feature in these patients. Furthermore, in patients with
valvular heart diseases, euthyroid sick syndrome (low
T3 syndrome) is a common problem, particularly who
have heart failure and affects mortality.[25,26] Thus,
patients with subclinical thyroid dysfunction should
be investigated in detail about exposure of the contrast
agents, family history of thyroid disea§ses, diseases
affecting blood circulation, and the use of inotropic
drugs which leads to decreased TSH.
In the literature, there are few studies and case
reports which are controversial regarding the safety
of cardiac surgery in subclinical thyroid diseases.
Mantzoros et al.[27] revealed that subclinical
hypothyroidism did not appear to be a risk factor
for significant morbidity or increased mortality
following PTCA. Ripoli et al.[28] examined the effects of subclinical hypothyroidism on the cardiac
pump performance and found that subclinical
hypothyroidism decreased the end-diastolic volume
and increased systemic vascular resistance, leading
to impairment of the cardiac pump performance,
compared to healthy subjects. More importantly, the
incidence of transient atrial fibrillation after CABG
was found to be slightly higher in patients with
subclinical hypothyroidism.[29] This finding suggests
that the detection of preoperative thyroid dysfunction
or the routine assessment of thyroid function may be
useful for patients undergoing CABG. In our study,
there was no significant difference between the
subclinical hypothyroid or hyperthyroid patients and
control group in terms of the morbidity and surgery
complication rates.
The EuroSCORE is a simple and common risk
scoring system for predicting operative mortality.[6,30]
Gensini severity scoring system is also commonly
used to identify the severity of coronary artery stenosis
according to CAG.[7] To the best of our knowledge,
correlation of these risk scores and thyroid function
test results has not been studied in the literature, yet.
In this study, we were unable to find a significant
correlation between the Gensini scores and any
of the thyroid function test results. However, the
EuroSCORE scores were positively correlated with
the pre- and postoperative TSH levels and negatively
correlated with the pre- and postoperative fT3 levels
and slightly correlated with fT4 levels. The correlations
were more evident for fT3 and TSH, followed by fT4,
suggesting that mortality increases with high TSH
and low fT3 levels. That is why preoperative thyroid
function test should be routinely performed and may
be useful postoperatively in predicting mortality, in
particular in patients with a known thyroid disease.
Euthyroid sick syndrome and low T3 syndrome
are also well-described after cardiac surgery. In
severe stress or major surgery, circulating levels of T3
decrease within two hours which is thought to reflect a
reduction in the peripheral conversion of T4 to T3.[31,32]
The majority of studies investigating thyroid hormone
levels in patients undergoing cardiac surgery have
demonstrated a well-established reduction in the fT3
levels, particularly under cardiopulmonary bypass.[33-35]
Murzi et al.[35] showed a significant reduction in the
fT3 levels with a nadir at 48 h postoperatively and
that the levels were still below baseline values at up to
six days following surgery. The degree of the decline
in the fT3 levels was higher than the fT4 levels. Similarly, in our study, we found a decline in the fT3
levels on postoperative Days 5-7 and reduction of
fT3 levels were more prominent than the fT4 levels.
Postoperative low T3 syndrome decreases cardiac
output as in chronic hypothyroidism and systemic
vascular resistance increases.[36] Recent studies have
mostly addressed into the effects of postoperative T3
replacement therapy. Previous studies performed in
small study groups have shown that T3 replacement
therapy increases cardiac output, decreases the need
for inotropic agents and incidence of atrial fibrillation
after cardiac surgery.[34,37,38] Although it has been
shown that T3 replacement therapy decreases the
incidence of arrhythmia by improving hemodynamic
performance, its association with mortality has not
been established in large-scale, randomized-controlled
studies, yet.[39-41] In a clinical review, Kaptein et
al.[41] analyzed 14 randomized-controlled studies
involving patients undergoing cardiac surgery and
reported that, although cardiac index increased and
the need for inotropic agents decreased, particularly
in elderly patients with low ejection fraction values
with T3 replacement therapy, there was no significant
difference in the mortality rates. On the other hand,
there is a limited number of data regarding the
duration of stay in the ICU and hospital. In our study,
the complication risk did not significantly decrease
in the patients, even if the fT3 levels decreased. The
strong association between the EuroSCORE scores
and fT3 and TSH levels suggests that T3 replacement
therapy may have positive effects on mortality. Based
on these findings, we suggest that certain patients
with low T3 and high TSH levels in the postoperative
period may benefit from T3 replacement therapy.
However, further studies including the mortality
endpoint is required to investigate the possible benefits
of thyroid hormone replacement.
Most reviewers and authors recommend
premedication for overt hyperthyroidism to prevent
thyroid storm or other complications during the
perioperative period.[42-44] For patients with
uncontrolled hyperthyroidism who are candidates
for an elective surgery, surgical procedure should
be postponed, until they become stable on antithyroid
therapy. For patients presenting urgent or
emergent surgery, the anesthesiologist should be
informed about the patent?s status to have drugs which
block the systematic effects of thyroid hormones
such as beta-blockers, iodide, and thionamides ready.
Although premedication for hyperthyroidism is clear in general, there is still controversy for hypothyroid
patients with known ischemic heart diseases or those
who are candidates for coronary revascularization.
Rapid treatment of thyroid dysfunction may increase
myocardial oxygen demand, leading to ischemia.
Currently, the consensus is that, if a patient needs
urgent cardiac revascularization, they should undergo
the procedure before replacement therapy;[44,46]
however, many endocrinologists prefer starting lowdose
T4 treatment in hospitalized patients. In our overt
hyperthyroid patients, we started oral thionamides
before surgery, although overt hypothyroid patients
underwent surgery, particularly those who had
critical coronary stenosis. Our common idea was
that revascularization is more important than
hypothyroidism, as at least four weeks are needed
to render those patients in the euthyroid state.
Unfortunately, one of our overt hypothyroid patients
with severe coronary artery stenosis and aortic valve
stenosis who underwent emergent surgery died.
The main limitation of our study is its small
sample size. In addition, total thyroid function
test was not performed in this study, as free
thyroid hormone levels are more reliable in this
study population. In our study, for the first time,
thyroid function tests were correlated with coronary
artery stenosis risk scores and surgical mortality
scores such as Gensini and EuroSCORE. Also,
subclinical thyroid disorders were evaluated in
patients undergoing CABG for the first time in
a controlled study. Nonetheless, further largescale,
prospective, randomized-controlled studies
are needed to confirm these findings.
In conclusion, CABG seems to be safe in patients
with thyroid dysfunction. Overt hyperthyroidism
increases the risk of arrhythmia and other potential
complications due to hyperthyroidism. Conversely,
subclinical thyroid disorders are not associated
with any complications and there is no need
for premedication before and after CABG. The
EuroSCORE scores also increase with low fT3
and high TSH levels in the perioperative period,
suggesting that thyroid hormones may affect open
heart surgery-related mortality or morbidity rates
and should be, therefore, evaluated before and after
surgery. Based on our study findings, T3 replacement
therapy may be useful in patients with low fT3 and
high TSH levels who have a higher mortality risk
score, according to the EuroSCORE.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect
to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research
and/or authorship of this article.