The Effect of White Blood Cells (WBCs) on the Clinical Outcome of Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) Surgery

Background: Leukocytosis is known to affect the clinical outcome of patients with coronary artery disease. It has been shown in the past for patients with acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, and I patients undergoing coronary percutaneous interventions. There is no enough data about the effect of the WBCs count on the clinical outcome following CABG surgery.

Methods: A retrospective study following 240 patients that underwent CABG surgery in the Baruch Padeh Medical Center in the last 4 years. There were 35 women and 206 men, aged 61.85±9.57 years. WBCs count was the independent variable and the dependent variables included the post-operative appearance of atrial fibrillation, mortality, re-admission rate, hospitalization time and the time that patients had to be connected to the cardio-pulmonary bypass machine (CPBM). We used logistic regression analysis, general linear model and receiver operating characteristic curve tests to study the effect of WBCs on all the dependent variables.

Results: Leukocytosis affected length of hospitalization (β=0.370, p=0.009). We found that the cut-off WBCs number that could predict an adverse clinical outcome was 10,105 WBCs/µL (sensitivity – 0.667; specificity – 0.825).

Discussion: WBCs count affect the clinical outcome post CABG. Levels higher than 10,105 cells/µL. Leukocytosis reflect an intense inflammatory state of the patient, which may affect its clinical outcome even following surgical intervention.