Out of 2,352 patients following implantation of SE-THV (CoreValve, Evolut R and Evolut PRO) or BE-THV (Sapien XT, Sapien 3) with pre-procedural MDCT measurements, 124 were excluded due to valve in valve, valve in ring or mitral valve interventions. Additional thirty-eight patients with BAAS and an annulus area of 330-350mm2 who were implanted with BE-THV were excluded from the analysis since the smaller valve size of 20mm was not implanted. Eventually, 598 patients with BAAS as defined for at least one THV type, 309 for SE-THV, 248 for BE-THV and forty-one patients for both devices were included in the analysis. Of them, 367 (61.4%) patients were implanted with borderline valves, while all others were implanted with non-borderline valves due to shift from SE-THV to BE-THV, or vice versa. The SE-THV group included 93 patients implanted with smaller valves, and 150 patients implanted with larger valves. In the BE-THV group, 22 patients were implanted with smaller valves, and 102 patients with larger valves.
In BAAS patients implanted with SE-THV, the baseline clinical characteristics of both groups (smaller and larger valves) did not differ, except for the New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class (Table 1A). In addition, no significant differences were observed in imaging (echocardiography and MDCT) measurements (Table 2A). In BAAS patients implanted with BE-THV, differences were noted in left ventricular function (Table 2B). Other measured baseline clinical and imaging characteristics did not differ between smaller and larger valves implantation (Table 1B and Table 2B).
Baseline clinical and imaging characteristics of patients with borderline annulus for SE devices implanted with borderline large SE-THV or non-borderline BE-THV did not differ, except for aortic valve mean pressure gradient (Table 2A). Comparison between non-borderline SE-THV implantation to large BE-borderline valves implantation in patients with borderline annulus for BE devices showed more females and higher Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) score in patients implanted with non-borderline SE-THV compared to large BE-borderline valves (Table 1B). In addition, in patients implanted with non-borderline SE-THV the left main (LM) and right coronary artery (RCA) heights were shorter compared with patients implanted with larger BE-borderline valves (Table 2B).
In the present cohort, favorable outcomes were observed while using larger valves in BAAS patients. For SE-THV, selection of larger valves compared to smaller valves was accompanied with significantly lower rates of PVL measured by both echocardiography (none: 54.6% vs. 35.5%, mild: 36% vs. 54.8%, mild to moderate: 7.3% vs. 6.4%, moderate: 2% vs. 2.1%, moderate to severe: 0% vs. 1%; pv=0.0282; Table 3) and angiography (none: 85.3% vs. 68.8%, mild: 13.3% vs. 27.9%, moderate: 1.3% vs. 3.2%; pv=0.0088; Table 3) and a trend toward lower gradients across the THV (7.9∓5.4 vs. 10.2∓10.8; pv=0.083; Table 3); for BE-THV, selection of larger valves compared to smaller valves resulted in better hemodynamics with lower gradients across the THV (9.9∓3.7 vs. 12.5∓7.2; pv=0.019; Table 3). In BE-THV no significant differences were demonstrated in PVL rates while comparing larger to smaller valves implantation in BAAS patients (Table 3). Selection of larger valves (either SE or BE) in BAAS patients did not change the rate of post-dilatation as well as adverse clinical outcomes such as new left bundle branch block (LBBB), rate of new pacemaker implantation, stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), annular rupture, coronary occlusion or mortality (Table 3).
Shift from large borderline SE-THV to non-borderline BE-THV was associated with higher gradients across the THV (7.98.5∓5.46.3 vs 12.11∓4.53; pv<0.0001; Table 4); However, lower rates of post-dilatation were observed (38% vs. 12.8%; pv=0.0001; Table 4), but without significant differences in PVL rates (Table 4). In a subgroup of patients who didn’t undergo post-dilatation the PVL rates also did not differ (Table 4). Shift from large borderline BE-THV to non-borderline SE-THV resulted in lower gradients (9.9∓3.7 vs 7.8∓3.5, pv<0.001; Table 4), and increased rates of post-dilatation (7.8% vs. 35.4%, pv<0.001; Table 4) with a trend toward increased overall PVL rated per echocardiography (33% vs. 45.8%, pv=0.08; Table 4). In a subgroup of patients who didn’t undergo post-dilation the PVL rates were increased in non-borderline SE-THV compared to large borderline BE-THV (none: 35.8% vs. 72%, mild: 51.2% vs. 25.8%, mild to moderate: 10.2% vs. 3.37%, moderate: 3% vs 0%, pv=0.001; Table 4).