Echocardiographic analysis of dysfunctional and normal myocardial segments before and immediately after coronary artery bypass surgery

Echocardiography has revealed evidence of "subnor­ mal" regional contraction patterns that result from myocardial ischemia and are often accompanied by nonadjacent "hyperkinetic" regions. Whether these regions of hyperkinetic wall motion persist un­ changed or revert to norma} after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery has not been studied in humans. Using echocardiography, we evaluated both dysfunctional and normal myocardial regions for changes in segmenta! wall motion and percent of systolic wall thickening that occurred immediately after CABG surgery in 32 patients. Segmenta! wall motion analysis before CABG surgery in these pa­ tients revealed that 170 (66%) of 256 myocardial segments were subnormal, of which 115 (67%) im­ proved and 102 (60%) returned to normal immedi­ ately after CABG surgery