Effect of vitamin D deficiency on the development of postoperative atrial fibrillation in coronary artery bypass patients

Introduction: various factors may be responsible for the development of postoperative atrial fibrillation (poaf) in coronary artery bypass graft (cabg) patients. in our study, we demonstrated the effect of vitamin d deficiency on the development of poaf. methods: in this prospective case control study, patients undergoing elective, isolated cabg were considered. a total of 15 patients (16.6%) who developed poaf during the first five days after surgery made up the poaf group. seventy-five patients that had a sinus rhythm in the same period were the non-poaf group. the two groups were compared statistically in terms of laboratory, clinical, echocardiographic, operative, and postoperative parameters. results: all patients were in sinus rhythm at discharge. the baseline characteristics of the study groups were comparable. the poaf group had a lower vitamin d level than the non-poaf group (9.0 ± 5.0 and 15.0 ± 8.4 ng/ml, respectively; p = 0.007). in the poaf group, the patients’ left atrium diameter and incidence of hypertension (ht) were higher than those of the non-poaf group. conclusion: incidence of poaf was significantly higher in patients with vitamin d deficiency or insufficiency than the patients with vitamin d level in normal range. therefore vitamin d deficiency or insufficiency may be a predictor of poaf in patients with cabg.