Echocardiographic evaluation of the effects of a single bolus of erythropoietin on reducing ischemia-reperfusion injuries during coronary artery bypass graft surgery; a randomized, double-blind, placebo-control study

Abstract

Background: Erythropoietin (EPO) is known as a regulating hormone for the production of red blood cells, called erythropoiesis. Some studies have shown that EPO exerts some non-hematopoietic protective effects on ischemia-reperfusion injuries in myocytes. Using echocardiography, we evaluated the effect of EPO infusion on reducing ischemia-reperfusion injuries and improvement of the cardiac function shortly after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). Methods: Forty-three patients were recruited in this study and randomly divided into two groups: the EPO group, receiving standard medication and CABG surgery plus EPO (700 IU/ kg), and the control group, receiving standard medication and CABG surgery plus normal saline (10 cc) as placebo. The cardiac function was assessed through echocardiography before as well as at 4 and 30 days after CABG. Results: Echocardiography indicated that the ejection fraction had no differences between the EPO and control groups at 4 days (47.05±6.29 vs. 45.90±4.97; P=0.334) and 30 days after surgery (47.27±28 vs. 46.62±5.7; P=0.69). There were no differences between the EPO and control groups in the wall motion score index at 4 (P=0.83) and 30 days after surgery (P=0.902). In the EPO group, there was a reduction in left ventricular end-systolic and end-diastolic diameters (LVESD and LVEDD, respectively), as compared to the control group. Conclusion: Our results indicated that perioperative exogenous EPO infusion could not improve the ventricular function and wall motion index in the immediate post-CABG weeks. Nevertheless, a reduction in LVEDD and LVESD at 4 days and 30 days after CABG in the EPO group, by comparison with the control group, suggested that EPO correlated with a reduction in the remodeling of myocytes and reperfusion injuries early after CABG.