Late Clinical Presentation of Prosthesis-Patient Mismatch Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement

Prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM) is relatively common after aortic valve replacement (AVR) and generally is associated with reduced regression of left ventricular (LV) mass. PPM after valve-in-valve transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) was reported to be 38%. PPM generally is manifested clinically by dyspnea and echocardiographically by high transvalvular gradients. In this E-Challenge, the authors will review a case of a late clinical presentation of PPM 1-year following a valve-in-valve TAVR.     

Current Topics on Bicuspid Aortic Valve: Clinical Aspects and Surgical Management

Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) has been identified as the most common heart valve anomaly and is considered to be a heritable disorder that affects various cardiovascular disorders, including aortopathy. Current topics regarding the clinical management of BAV including surgical strategies with or without concomitant aortic repair or replacement are attracting interest, in addition to the pathological and morphological aspects of BAV as well as aortopathy. However, surgical indications are still being debated and are dependent on current clinical guidelines and surgeons’ preferences. Although clinical guidelines have already been established for the management of BAV with or without aortopathy, many studies on clinical management and surgical techniques involving various kinds of subjects have previously been published. Although a large number of studies concerning the clinical aspects of BAV have been reviewed in detail, controversy still surrounds the clinical and surgical management of BAV. Therefore, surgeons should carefully consider valve pathology when deciding whether to replace the ascending aorta. In this review, we summarized current topics on BAV and the surgical management of diseased BAV with or without aortopathy based on previous findings, including catheter-based interventional management.     

Concomitant Mitral Regurgitation in Patients Undergoing Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement for Aortic Stenosis: A Systematic Review

Background: Concomitant mitral regurgitation (MR) is frequently seen in patients undergoing surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) for severe aortic stenosis (AS). When the severity of MR is moderate or less, the decision to undertake simultaneous mitral valve intervention can be challenging.Methods: A systematic search of Medline, PubMed (NCBI), Embase and Cochrane Library was conducted to qualitatively assess the current evidence for concomitant mitral valve intervention for MR in patients with AS undergoing AVR. The primary outcome for this systematic review was the postoperative change in the severity of MR and other outcomes of interest included factors that predict improvement or persistence of MR and long-term impacts of residual MR.Results: A total of 17 studies were included. The percentage of patients demonstrating improvement in MR severity following AVR ranged from 17.2% to 72%; the studies that exclusively included patients with moderate functional MR and reported longer term echocardiographic follow-up of greater than 12 months demonstrated an improvement in MR severity of 45% to 72%.Conclusion: This systematic review demonstrates that a proportion of patients can exhibit an improvement in MR following isolated surgical AVR, but whether this confers any long-term morbidity and mortality benefit remains unclear.     

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement as a bridge to surgical aortic valve replacement in a younger patient with extremely high surgical risk

A 50‐year‐old man with decompensated aortic stenosis displayed significantly reduced ejection fraction, an ascending aortic aneurysm (55 mm in diameter), and bilateral giant bullae, and was evaluated as having extremely high surgical risk. Therefore, as a bridge to definitive treatment, he simultaneously underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and upper left lung lobectomy. His heart function recovered 6 months later and he underwent surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) and graft replacement of the ascending aorta. TAVR may serve as a bridge procedure before SAVR for aortic stenosis in younger patients with high surgical risk.     

Impact of Chronic Kidney Disease on the Prognosis of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in Patients with Aortic Stenosis: A Meta-Analysis of 133624 Patients

Purpose: The impact of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on the prognosis of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) remains unclear. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to assess the impact of CKD and different stages of CKD on prognosis in patients undergoing TAVR.Methods: As of June 2020, we performed a comprehensive literature search on relevant studies using PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science. Subsequently, we pooled the risk ratio (RR) of individual studies via random effects to analyze heterogeneity, quality assessment, and publication bias.Results: A total of 20 studies, involving 133624 patients, were eligible for analysis. Patients with CKD had higher all-cause mortality at 30 days (RR: 1.39, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.31–1.47, P <0.001), 1 year (RR: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.24–1.49, P <0.001), and 2 years (RR: 1.2, 95% CI: 1.05–1.38, P = 0.009) of follow-up. Moreover, they also had higher acute kidney injury (AKI) (RR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.16–1.63, P <0.001) and bleeding (RR: 1.33, 95% CI: 1.18–1.50, P <0.001) at 30 days. CKD3 alone also increased all-cause mortality at follow-ups. Risk of all-cause mortality increased with severity of CKD for stages 3, 4, and 5 at follow-up.Conclusion: Patients with CKD are at an increased risk of all-cause mortality, AKI, and bleeding events after TAVR. Moreover, the mortality risk rises with increasing severity of CKD.