Abstract
BACKGROUND: Postoperative delirium (POD) is a serious complication of cardiac surgery. It is an acute neuropsychiatric syndrome. The aim of this study was to analyze the CARDEL Index, composed of advancing age, preoperative glycated hemoglobin and the platelet-to-WBC ratio (PWR) previously described and calculated, using a different patient database, to assess its usefulness as a marker for predicting postoperative delirium after coronary artery by-pass grafting (CABG). METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 1098 patients who underwent, isolated CABG procedures between 2017 and 2019 was performed. RESULTS: Within the study group, 164/1098 (14.93%) patients were diagnosed with delirium. Preoperative inflammatory parameters were elevated in patients with delirium: White Blood Cell count (p=0.003), Neutrophil count (p=0.016) and C-reactive protein (p<0.001). A decrease in preoperative PWR was shown in patients with delirium (p=0.008). Delirious patients spent more time mechanically ventilated (p<0.001) and had longer hospitalization times (p=0.002). Mortality at 1 year was significantly higher in patients with POD (p<0.001). The CARDEL Index in this study group for POD detection has the largest area under the curve (AUC) of 0.664 (p<0.001) and a cut-off value of 8.08. CONCLUSION: CARDEL Index may be treated as a potentially valuable tool for delirium prediction in patients after CABG.