Data Collection
Pre-operative and intra-operative data were collected from clinical records. The main variable investigated was stroke, defined as an acute focal neurological event with a positive magnetic resonance imaging, regardless of duration of clinical symptoms, or a persistent focal neurological deficit lasting longer than 24 hours. Diagnosis of stroke was determined by our cardiac surgical team (at least one cardiac surgeon and one cardiac anesthesiologist) and confirmed by a neurologist in all cases; patients with stroke underwent brain computed tomography and magnetic resonance and the presence of stroke was verified in all patients.
Patients were subsequently followed in our outpatient clinic (67%) or through phone calls (33%). New neurological and cardiac events (recurrence of angina, acute myocardial infarction, new revascularization procedures, whether percutaneous or surgical) as well as survival data were collected.