Can Elderly Patients with Severe Mitral Regurgitation Benefit from Trans-catheter Mitral Valve Repair?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Age is a traditional risk factor for open-heart surgery. The efficacy and safety of transcatheter edge-to-edge mitral valve repair, using MitraClip (Abbott Vascular), has been demonstrated in patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR). Since octogenarians or older patients are usually deferred to receive open-heart surgery, the main interest of this study is to elucidate the procedural safety and long-term clinical impact of MitraClip in elderly patients. METHODS: Patients with symptomatic severe MR were evaluated by the heart team. For those with high or prohibitive surgical risks, transcatheter mitral valve repair was performed in hybrid operation room. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), blood tests, and six-minute walk test (6MWT) were performed before, 1-month, 6-months, and 1 year after index procedure. RESULTS: A total of 46 consecutive patients receiving MitraClip procedure were enrolled. Nineteen patients (84.2±4.0 years) were over 80-year-old and 27 (73.4±11.1 years) were younger than 80. Compare to baseline, the significant reduction in MR severity was achieved after the procedure and sustained. All the patients benefited from significant improvement in New York Heart Association functional class. The 6-minute walk test (6MWT) increased from 259±114 to 319±92 meters (p=0.03) at 1 year. The overall 1-year survival rate was 80% in the elderly and 88% in those <80 years, p=0.590. Baseline 6MWT was a predictor for all-cause mortality (odds ratio, 0.99; 95% confidence interval, 0.982–0.999; p=0.026) after the MitraClip procedure. CONCLUSIONS: Trans-catheter edge-to-edge mitral valve repairs are safe and have positive clinical impact in subjects with severe MR, even in advanced age.

Can Elderly Patients with Severe Mitral Regurgitation Benefit from Trans-catheter Mitral Valve Repair?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES@#Age is a traditional risk factor for open-heart surgery. The efficacy and safety of transcatheter edge-to-edge mitral valve repair, using MitraClip (Abbott Vascular), has been demonstrated in patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR). Since octogenarians or older patients are usually deferred to receive open-heart surgery, the main interest of this study is to elucidate the procedural safety and long-term clinical impact of MitraClip in elderly patients.@*METHODS@#Patients with symptomatic severe MR were evaluated by the heart team. For those with high or prohibitive surgical risks, transcatheter mitral valve repair was performed in hybrid operation room. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), blood tests, and six-minute walk test (6MWT) were performed before, 1-month, 6-months, and 1 year after index procedure.@*RESULTS@#A total of 46 consecutive patients receiving MitraClip procedure were enrolled. Nineteen patients (84.2±4.0 years) were over 80-year-old and 27 (73.4±11.1 years) were younger than 80. Compare to baseline, the significant reduction in MR severity was achieved after the procedure and sustained. All the patients benefited from significant improvement in New York Heart Association functional class. The 6-minute walk test (6MWT) increased from 259±114 to 319±92 meters (p=0.03) at 1 year. The overall 1-year survival rate was 80% in the elderly and 88% in those <80 years, p=0.590. Baseline 6MWT was a predictor for all-cause mortality (odds ratio, 0.99; 95% confidence interval, 0.982–0.999; p=0.026) after the MitraClip procedure.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Trans-catheter edge-to-edge mitral valve repairs are safe and have positive clinical impact in subjects with severe MR, even in advanced age.

Grasping the Pseudo-Cleft in the Case of a Small, Severely Tethered Posterior Mitral Leaflet

No abstract available.

The relationship between the metabolic syndrome and arterial wall thickness: A mosaic still to be interpreted.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: We aimed to identify clusters of metabolic syndrome (MetS) components, risky for extremely high intima-media thickness. METHODS: We studied 41,513 volunteers (men and women) from eleven cohorts worldwide, participating in the MARE (Metabolic syndrome and Artery REsearch) Consortium. RESULTS: Specific clusters of MetS components - high triglycerides-high blood pressure-abdominal obesity (TBW), low HDL cholesterol-high blood pressure-abdominal obesity (HBW), high glucose-high blood pressure-abdominal obesity (GBW) - were accompanied by a 50-90% significantly greater likelihood of presenting extremely high intima-media thickness (via ultrasound of carotid artery, CCA IMT), after controlling for age, sex, smoking, non-HDL cholesterol, and presence of diabetes mellitus. This likelihood is comparable to the effect of being 7-8 years older or of being a cigarette smoker or of having non-HDL cholesterol 50 mg/dl higher. CONCLUSIONS: The consistent association of specific clusters of MetS components with extremely thick (older) large artery cross-culturally suggests that identification of those clusters in clinical practice will facilitate a personalized health care and a better - i.e. more healthy and cost-effective - prevention of major cardiovascular (CV) events.

Coronary Artery Fistula With a Huge Aneurysm Formation Presenting as Heart Failure

No abstract available.