The music therapy effectiveness in hypertensive patients with acute myocardial infarction after previous coronary artery bypass surgery; 18-year experience of the MUSIC study

Abstract Patients who have clinical evidence of hypertension (HT) after coronary artery bypass surgery (CABS) have a poor prognosis in expression of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), as one of the MACE. Unrelieved anxiety can produce an increase in sympathetic nervous system activity leading to an increase in cardiac workload. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of music therapy on prognosis of patients with HT and AMI, after CABS. Methods 314 patients (males 78.4%, mean age 59.8±1.2 yrs) with AMI after previous CABS have been selected from the patients consecutively submitted from January 2003 to January 2019. HT was registered in 166 (53.0%) pts with AMI after previous CABS. All patients with HT were randomized and divided in 2 groups: Study group of 83 patients treated with music therapy and Control group of 83 patients with no music therapy. Each patient in study group underwent two sessions of medical therapy (12 minutes) in a day. Both groups were similar in baselines, post-AMI characteristics and post-AMI medical therapy. The plasma cytokine and catecholamine were measured in both groups. Results In the Study group, heart rate was significantly decreased by music therapy (p=0.0196). In the Control group, there were no significant changes in heart rate. Among cytokines (p=0.0160), plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) (p=0.0179) in the Study group was significantly lower than those in the Control group, as well as plasma adrenaline (p=0.0162) and noradrenalin (p=0.0218) levels. Conclusion This study provides support for the use of musical therapy in patients with HT and AMI after previous CABS. The positive effects of music therapy, in these patients, are probably because of enhanced of parasympathetic activities and reduction of plasma cytokine and catecholamine levels. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.