Effects of Dexmedetomidine on Biochemical Markers of Myocardial Injury after Pediatric Cardiac Surgeries

Background: Perioperative administration of alpha2- adrenergic agonist dexmedetomidine, has been shown to reduce anesthetic requirements, enhance hemodynamic stability and provide sedation during postoperative recovery following coronary artery bypass.Biochemical markers are easily measured from blood samples and detect even minor levels of myocardial injury in all patients. Caveats concerning the myocardial specificity of biochemical markers after cardiac surgery (e.g., myoglobin and CK-MB are released predominantly but not exclusively from myocardium after cardiac surgery) can be resolved by the measurement of cTnT and cTnI, highly specific myocardial isoforms of the respective subunits of the troponin regulatory complex.Methods: The present study included 40 pediatric patients undergoing repair of congenital heart defects with CPB including cyanotic and acyanotic patients, with average age of 6 months-8 years.Patients were randomly allocated into 2 equal groups: Group (A): Dexmedetomidine group (n=20).Group (B): Control group (n=20).Objective: To detect if there is a role of dexmedetomidine on biochemical markers of myocardial injury during cardiopon biochemical markers of myocardial injury during cardiop-ulmonary bypass in infants and children undergoing corrective cardiac surgery.Conclusion: Dexmedetomidine has a cardioprotective effect evidenced by lower values of biochemical markers of myocardial injury (cTnI, cTnT, CKMB and myoglobin) following pediatric cardiac surgeries.