Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement showed better results than conventional surgery in high risk diabetic patients.

Original title: Transcatheter Versus Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement in Patients With Diabetes and Severe Aortic Stenosis at High Risk for Surgery An Analysis of the PARTNER Trial (Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valve). Reference: Lindman BR et al. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2014 Mar 25;63(11):1090-9. Diabetes is associated to greater morbidity and mortality after surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR),...

Transcatheter valve replacement for bicuspid aortic valve stenosis

Original title: Comparison of Results of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation in Patients with Severely Stenotic Bicuspid versus Tricuspid or Non-Bicuspid Valves. Reference: Charis Costopoulos et al. Am J Cardiol. 2014 Jan 31. pii: S0002-9149(14)00554-2. The bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most common congenital cardiac malformation. It occurs in approximately 1% of the general population and often...

Aortic regurgitation: the best predictor of post TAVI mortality

Original title: Post-procedural aortic regurgitation in balloon-expandable and self-expandable TAVR procedures: analysis of predictors and impact on long-term mortality: insights from the FRANCE 2 registry. Reference: Van Belle E et al. Circulation. 2014; Epub ahead of print. This study used transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) to evaluate 2769 patients undergoing successful TAVI in 34 centers in France, enrolled in...

Flow-Gradient Patterns can help in the selection of patients with aortic stenosis

Original title: Flow-Gradient Patterns in Severe Aortic Stenosis UIT Preserved Ejection Fraction. Clinical Characteristic and Predictos of Survival. Reference: Eleid, M, et al. Circulation 2013;128:1781-1789 Severe aortic stenosis is usually defined by echocardiography as a 40 mm mean transvalvular gradient Hg at >4 m/s; but there are low flow or paradoxical low flow cases with different evolution. 1704...

Low flow impact on outcomes following TAVI should be taken into account

Original title: Impact of Low Flow on the Outcome of High-Risk Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement. Reference: Florent Le Ven, et al. J Am Coll Cardiol 62;9:792-788 A study of low flow (SVi <35ml/m2) in the context of severe aortic stenosis has shown it is a predictor of worse outcomes after surgery, even though evolution with medical...

Ultrasound images that can predict the risk of stroke in asymptomatic patients

Original title: Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis and Risk of Stroke (ACSRS). Reference: Stavros K. Kakkos et al. J Vasc Surg 2013;57:609-18. Despite multiple studies for a uniform approach to treat asymptomatic carotid lesions, it has not been achieved. Many factors have been proposed that contribute to the stratification including the severity of the stenosis, the plaque type, clinical, silent...

CoreValve versus Edwards. Equivalent results at one year

Original title: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation With the Edwards SAPIEN Versus the Medtronic CoreValve Revalving System Devices. A Multicenter Collaborative Study: The PRAGMATIC Plus Initiative (Pooled-RotterdAm-Milano-Toulouse In Collaboration). Reference: Alaide Chieffo et al. J Am Coll Cardiol 2013;61:830–6. Since the introduction of percutaneous aortic valve replacement (TAVR), two devices have been widely used. For one side, the self-expanding...