New brain infarcts on magnetic resonance imaging after coronary artery bypass graft surgery: Lesion patterns, mechanism, and predictors

Objective New brain infarcts after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) are markedly more frequent than clinically evident stroke and have been proposed as a surrogate marker of postprocedural stroke. We sought to investigate the lesion patterns, mechanisms, and predictors of new brain infarction after CABG surgery. Methods This was a prospective pre‐ and postoperative brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in consecutive patients who underwent isolated CABG. Preoperative MRI included diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) and magnetic resonance angiography. DWI was repeated on postoperative day 3. Clinical variables, intraoperative findings, and laboratory findings were compared between patients with and without new brain infarcts on DWI. Results Of a total of 127 included patients, 35 (27.6%) showed new brain infarcts on DWI. Most lesions were clinically silent, located in the cortical territory (80%), small (