Coronary Artery Disease in Peripheral Vascular Patients

In an attempt to reduce early and late mortality caused by myocardial infarction, coronary angiography was performed in 1000 patients (mean age, 64 years) under consideration for elective peripheral vascular reconstruction since 1978. Those found to have severe, surgically correctable coronary artery disease (CAD) were advised to undergo myocardial revascularization (CABG), usually preceding other vascular procedures. The primary vascular diagnosis was abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in 263 patients (mean age, 67 years), cerebrovascular disease (CVD) in 295 (mean age, 64 years), and lower extremity ischemia (ASO) in 381 (mean age, 61 years). Severe correctable CAD was identified in 25% of the entire series (AAA, 31%; CVD, 26%; and ASO, 21%). Surgical CAD was documented in 34% of patients suspected to have CAD by clinical criteria (AAA, 44%; CVD, 33%; and ASO, 30%) and in 14% of those without previous indications of CAD (AAA, 18%; CVD, 17%; and ASO, 8%). Cardiac procedures (216 CABG) were performed in 226 patients (AAA, 30%; CVD, 22%; and ASO, 19%), with 12 (5.3%) postoperative deaths. A total of 796 patients underwent 1066 peripheral vascular operations with an early mortality of 2.0% (AAA, 3.4%; ASO, 1.9%; and CVD, 0.3%), but only one death (0.8%) occurred in the group of 130 patients having preliminary CABG. The overall operative mortality for 1292 cardiac and peripheral vascular procedures was 2.6%.