Is Routine Functional Testing Åfter Coronary Bypass Surgery Worthwhile?
In the current issue of the Journal, Eisenberg and colleagues present their interesting findings from the ROutine versus Selected Exercise Treadmill Test after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (ROSETTA-CABG) Registry.1 The purpose of this study was to examine the clinical utility of routine functional testing in otherwise asymptomatic patients who have undergone prior coronary bypass surgery. Although coronary bypass grafting has been shown to substantially improve survival in certain patient subsets2 and to provide meaningful relief of angina in many others,3 it is well known that it is hardly a cure for coronary artery disease.4 Over time, patients with prior coronary bypass grafting surgery suffer from saphenous vein graft disease5 or progression of native disease, either of which can lead to recurrent angina, myocardial infarction, or fatal outcome. For this reason, many clinicians routinely obtain exercise testing with or without imaging in post-bypass surgery patients in order to ide
