Neutrophil Count as Atrioventricular Block (AVB) Predictor following Pediatric Heart Surgery

Abstract

Neutrophils play a significant role in immune and inflammatory reactions. The preoperative inflammatory activation may have a detrimental effect on postoperative outcomes. The aim of the study was to investigate the relation between preoperative hematological indices on postoperative complications’ risk in pediatric cardiac congenital surgery. The retrospective single center analysis included 93 pediatric patients (48 (65%) males and 45 (35%) females), mean age of 7 (3–30) months referred for cardiac surgery in cardiopulmonary bypass due to functional single ventricle disease (26 procedures), shunts lesions (40 procedures) and cyanotic disease (27 procedures). Among simple hematological indices, the receiver-operating-characteristic curve showed that a neutrophil count below 2.59 K/uL was found as an optimal cut-off point for predicting postoperative atrioventricular block following pediatric cardiac surgery (AUC = 0.845, p < 0.0001) yielding a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 65.62%. Preoperative values of neutrophil count below 2.59 K/uL in whole blood analysis can be regarded as a predictive factor (AUC = 0.845, p < 0.0001) for postoperative atrioventricular block in pediatric cardiac surgery.

The beneficial role of simple inflammatory blood indices in pediatric cardiology

“…27 Preoperative neutrophil count has been proposed as a predictive factor for postoperative atrioventricular block in pediatric cardiac surgery. 28…”

Red blood cell distribution width as a prognostic marker of prolonged mechanical ventilation after paediatric cardiac surgery

“…Several studies in adult and paediatric surgery and medical therapy have demonstrated the significant value of simple blood analysis in predicting short-term and long-term outcomes [7][8][9][10]. The RDW is a simple, routinely analysed blood measurement which denotes the variability in red blood cell (RBC) size.…”