Objectives This study sought to evaluate the impact of frailty in older adults undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for symptomatic aortic stenosis. Background Frailty status impacts prognosis in older adults with heart disease; however, the impact of frailty on prognosis after TAVR is unknown. Methods Gait speed, grip strength, serum albumin, and activities of daily living status were collected at baseline and used to derive a frailty score among patients who underwent TAVR procedures at a single large-volume institution. The cohort was dichotomized on the basis of median frailty score into frail and not frail groups. The impact of frailty on procedural outcomes (stroke, bleeding, vascular complications, acute kidney injury, and mortality at 30 days) and 1-year mortality was evaluated. Results Frailty status was assessed in 159 subjects who underwent TAVR (age 86 ± 8 years, Society of Thoracic Surgery Risk Score 12 ± 4). Baseline frailty score was not associated with conventionally ascertained clinical variables or Society of Thoracic Surgery score. Although high frailty score was associated with a longer post-TAVR hospital stay when compared with lower frailty score (9 ± 6 days vs. 6 ± 5 days, respectively, p = 0.004), there were no significant crude associations between frailty status and procedural outcomes, suggesting adequacy of the standard selection process for identifying patients at risk for periprocedural complications after TAVR. Frailty status was independently associated with increased 1-year mortality (hazard ratio: 3.5, 95% confidence interval: 1.4 to 8.5, p = 0.007) after TAVR. Conclusions Frailty was not associated with increased periprocedural complications in patients selected as candidates to undergo TAVR but was associated with increased 1-year mortality after TAVR. Further studies will evaluate the independent value of this frailty composite in older adults with aortic stenosis.

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There was a mild but significant increase in transvalvular gradients over time after TAVR. The lack of anticoagulation therapy, a valve-in-valve procedure, a greater body mass index, and the use of a 23-mm transcatheter valve were associated with higher rates of VHD post-TAVR. Further prospective studies are required to determine whether a specific antithrombotic therapy post-TAVR may reduce the risk of VHD.

Bioprosthetic valve use has increased significantly. Considering their limited durability, there will remain an ongoing clinical need for repairing or replacing these prostheses in the future. The current standard of care for treating bioprosthetic valve degeneration involves redo open-heart surgery. However, repeat cardiac surgery may be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. With the rapid evolution of transcatheter heart valve therapies, the feasibility and safety of implanting a transcatheter heart valve within a failed tissue valve has been established. We review the historical perspective of transcatheter valve-in-valve therapy, as well as the main procedural challenges and clinical outcomes associated with this new less invasive treatment option.

The goal of the current study is to compare a novel 3D-TEE method for annular assessment with MDCT measurements Background-Previous studies have shown cross-sectional 3-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiographic (TEE) measurements to severely underestimate multidetector row computed tomographic (MDCT) measurements for the assessment of aortic annulus before transcatheter aortic valve replacement. This study compares annulus measurements from 3D-TEE using off-label use of commercially available software with MDCT measurements and assesses their ability to predict paravalvular regurgitation. Methods and Results-One hundred patients with severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis who had both contrast MDCT and 3D-TEE for annulus assessment before balloon-expandable transcatheter aortic valve replacement were analyzed. Annulus area, perimeter, and orthogonal maximum and minimum diameters were measured. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed with mild or greater paravalvular regurgitation as the classification variable. Three-dimensional TEE and MDCT cross-sectional perimeter and area measurements were strongly correlated (r=0.93-0.94; P<0.0001); however, the small differences (≤1%) were statistically significant (P=0.0002 and 0.0074, respectively). Discriminatory ability for ≥ mild paravalvular regurgitation was good for both MDCT (area under the curve for perimeter and area cover index=0.715 and 0.709, respectively) and 3D-TEE (area under the curve for perimeter and area cover index=0.709 and 0.694, respectively). Differences in receiver operating characteristic analysis between MDCT and 3D-TEE perimeter and area cover indexes were not statistically significant (P=0.15 and 0.35, respectively). Conclusions-Annulus

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The readmission burden after TAVR in an all-comers population was high. Nearly one-fifth of the patients were readmitted early after hospital discharge, increasing the risk of mortality at follow-up. Reasons for readmission were split between noncardiac and cardiac causes, with respiratory causes and heart failure as the main diagnoses in each group, respectively. Whereas early readmissions were mainly related to periprocedural bleeding events, most late readmissions were secondary to baseline patient comorbidities. These results underscore the importance of and provide the basis for implementing specific preventive measures to reduce readmission rates after TAVR.

TAVR was associated with global improvement in cognitive status, more pronounced among those with cognitive impairment pre-TAVR. However, early decline in some complex cognitive functions was observed in one-quarter of TAVR recipients, persisting at 1 year in 10% of patients.