Cardiac Cycle Efficiency and Vasoactive-Inotropic Support After Cardiac Surgery (CCE-VIS)

After open-heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), many patients develop myocardial depression and vasoplegia and require vasoactive and inotropic support. High support requirement, quantified by the Vasoactive-Inotropic Score (VIS), is associated with prolonged mechanical ventilation, acute kidney injury, longer ICU stay and increased mortality. Reliable early hemodynamic markers to identify these patients are lacking.

Cardiac Cycle Efficiency (CCE), derived from arterial waveform analysis by the Pressure Recording Analytical Method (MostCare Up), reflects the energetic efficiency of the cardiovascular system, integrating contractility, arterial load and ventricular-arterial coupling. Lower CCE values have been associated with higher inotropic requirement in children after cardiac surgery, but data in adults are lacking.

In this single-center prospective observational study, hemodynamic parameters will be recorded at six time points: after induction, before CPB, 15 and 30 minutes after separation from CPB, end of surgery, and ICU admission. Patients will be classified according to maximum VIS in the first 24 postoperative hours (<15 vs ≥15). The predictive performance of CCE at 30 minutes after CPB will be assessed by ROC analysis. Associations of CCE with lactate, duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU and hospital stay, acute kidney injury and in-hospital mortality will also be evaluated.