Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Acute blood loss occurs very frequently in cardiac surgery, and is often linked to increased organ injury and death. During blood loss, doctors replenish fluids to maintain blood volume, but this leads to blood dilution. Although we can tolerate mild to moderate blood dilution, many clinical trials have shown that too much dilution is detrimental. One reason of this could be due to reduced oxygen delivery (or hypoxia) to tissues during blood dilution, as shown in animal studies. Currently, we do not have enough knowledge to know the degree of which blood dilution is harmful for each patient. Thus, the aim of this research is to identify risks, such as tissue hypoxia, by using novel biomarkers detected in the blood of these anemic patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Identification of these biomarkers can help to develop treatment strategies for anemic patients.