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Introduction: Postoperative atrial fibrillation is one of the most common arrhythmias after cardiac surgery. It prolongs inpatient hospitalisation and increases the costs of hospital care as well as early and late mortality. Our study aimed to characterize the prevalence, predictors and recurrence of postoperative atrial fibrillation and the effect of arrhythmia on the early cardiac rehabilitation after coronary, valve or combined surgery. Methods: All patients were treated at our Cardiac Rehabilitation Department between January 2016 and December 2017. Patients with new onset atrial fibrillation were compared with the arrhythmia-free group. Predictors of the postope­rative atrial fibrillation, the clinical parameters, the aerobic capacity and endurance of the patients were characterized during the cardiac rehabilitation. Patients were followed up via transtelephonic ECG. Results: A total of 289 patients (103 women; age 64.2 [±10.1] years) were included in the study, in 117 (40.5%) patients developed new onset atrial fibrillation. In this group, significantly higher age, CHA2DS2-VASc Score, pre- and postope­rative left atrial diameters, worse pre- and postoperative renal function and lower haemoglobin levels were identified. Further decrease of renal function (73.4 [±16.7] ml/min/1.73 m2 vs. 67.9 [±19.4] ml/min/1.73 m2; p

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Dual antiplatelet therapy with clopidogrel and aspirin is frequently used for the prevention of recurrent ischemic events. Various laboratory methods are used to detect the effect of these drugs administered in monotherapy, however their value in dual therapy has not been explored. Here, we determined which methods used for testing the effect of clopidogrel or aspirin are influenced by the other antiplatelet agent. One arm of the study included 53 ischemic stroke patients being on clopidogrel monotherapy showing effective inhibition of the P2Y12ADP receptor. Laboratory tests routinely used for the detection of aspirin resistance (arachidonic acid (AA)-induced platelet aggregation/secretion, AA-induced thromboxane B2(TXB2) production in platelet-rich plasma and VerifyNow Aspirin assay) were carried out on samples obtained from these patients. The other arm of the study involved 52 patients with coronary artery disease being on aspirin monotherapy. Methods used for testing the effect of clopidogrel (ADP-induced platelet aggregation and secretion, flow cytometric analysis of vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) phosphorylation and a newly developed P2Y12-specific platelet aggregation (ADP[PGE1] test)) were performed on samples obtained from these patients. Clopidogrel monotherapy significantly inhibited AA-induced platelet aggregation and secretion, moreover, AA-induced TXB2production was also significantly decreased. VASP phosphorylation and AA-induced platelet aggregation showed fair correlation in patients taking clopidogrel only. Clopidogrel did not inhibit the VerifyNow Aspirin test significantly. Aspirin monotherapy influenced ADP-induced platelet aggregation and secretion, but did not have an effect on VASP phosphorylation and on the ADP[PGE1] platelet aggregation test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]