Worldwide more than 230 million major surgeries are performed annually and this number continues to grow [1]. The estimated postoperative myocardial infarction (MI) rate is 1% (approximately 2,300,000 patients) and the cardiovascular mortality rate is approximately 0.3% (690,000 patients) [i]. The incidence of asymptomatic perioperative cardiac damage is not well known, but can be as high as 20% in patients undergoing high-risk surgery, such as vascular surgery [2,3].
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