Prognostic Significance of Asymptomatic Cerebral Infarction in Patients After Cardiac Catheterization

Recent studies have showed that asymptomatic cerebral infarction (ACI) developed in a reasonable number of patients after cardiac catheterization. However, no study has investigated the long-term prognostic impact of ACI after cardiac catheterization. We investigated whether ACI after cardiac catheterization affects long-term mortality and subsequent cardiovascular events.

We retrospectively enrolled patients who underwent cardiac catheterization before cardiac surgery and cerebral diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI). The incidence and clinical features of ACI were investigated. The long-term prognosis, including all-cause mortality and subsequent major cardiovascular events (MACE; all-cause mortality, stroke, acute myocardial infarction, fatal arrhythmia, and hospitalized heart failure), was also assessed.

A total of 203 patients were enrolled. Of these, 10.3% had ACI diagnosed by DWI. There were no differences in baseline characteristics between patients with and without ACI, except more frequent history of symptomatic stroke in patients with ACI. In the Kaplan-Meier analysis during a median follow-up of 1009 days, the patients with ACI showed worse mortality and a slightly higher occurrence of MACE compared with those without ACI (P = 0.01 and P = 0.08, respectively). In addition, ACI was a prognostic marker independent of age, surgery type, and history of stroke.

ACI after cardiac catheterization frequently developed and was also associated with long-term prognosis. It may be an independent prognostic marker in high-risk patients who underwent subsequent cardiac surgery.