The effect of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in prevention of postoperative atrial fibrillation development in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Purpose. To estimate the effect of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in prevention of postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) in patients with coronary artery disease undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Methods. Studied were 306 patients who underwent CABG. All the patients were divided into two groups depending on the prescription of omega-3 PUFAs in the pre- and postoperative period by randomization method: 1 group comprised 158 patients without PUFAs (82.7% men, median age 63.0 (57.0;67.0) years, 2 group - 148 patients with PUFAs (89.3% men, median age 60.0 (57.0;64.0) years). PUFAs were prescribed 2000 mg daily starting with 5 days before CABG and 1000 mg daily after CABG for 21 days. In all the patients, we studied interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-10, NT-proBNP, troponin, superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione and omega-3 index. Results. During the observation period POAF occurred in 29.7% patients of group 1, and in 16.9% patients of group 2 (p = 0.009). In postoperative period patients of group 1 had median IL-6 level 39.3% higher (p = 0.001) and median IL-10 level - 20.2% higher (p = 0.01) comparing with group 2. In patients of group 2 we found SOD median level 78.9% lower (р<0.0001) and MDA median level 33.8% lower compared to the patients of group 1 (р=0.03). In postoperative period in group 2 the median level of docosahexaenoic acid was 55% higher (p = 0.03), and omega-3 index - 43.4% higher (h = 0.04) compared with group 1. Conclusion. We found that patients with PUFAs had less activation of inflammation and oxidative stress after CABG than patients without PUFAs. The patients with PUFAs also had increased levels of docosahexaenoic acids and omega-3 index compared to the patients without PUFAs. We also found a significant decrease of the prevalence of POAF after CABG in patients with PUFAs.