Validation of expert criteria proposed by the “German Cardiac Society” for predicting procedural complexity in transcatheter edge-to-edge mitral valve repair

Background

Following up on the original EVEREST criteria and several years of procedural experience, the German Cardiac Society (GCS) proposed refined criteria indicating morphological complexity in transcatheter edge-to-edge mitral valve repair (TEER) procedures which so far have not been validated.

Methods

In a retrospective analysis of transesophageal echocardiography images of consecutive patients undergoing TEER in two high-volume centres, complexity was classified according to GCS criteria as optimal (neither characteristics of “complex” nor “very complex', see Table 1), complex (any of the “complex” criteria but no “very complex” criteria) and very complex (any of the “very complex” criteria). Associations with the procedural outcome, reintervention, survival, and heart failure rehospitalization were tested.

Results

633 patients (mean age 79 years, range 50 to 96 years, 59% male) were included, with 35% having dominant primary and 65% having dominant secondary mitral regurgitation (MR). 19% of patients were classified as having optimal, 40% as complex, and 41% as very complex morphologies. Successful clip implantation and reduction in MR ≤2 at discharge were achieved in 100% and 97% in the optimal, in 96% and 88% in the complex, and in 95% and 88% in the very complex morphologies, respectively (p for difference 0.13 and 0.42). The rate of successful clip deployment was significantly lower and the rate of reintervention significantly higher in patients with a mitral valve orifice area ≤3 cm2, compared to patients with a mitral valve orifice area >3 cm2. Pathology extent of MR likely requiring >2 clips was significantly associated with a lower rate of MR reduction to grade ≤2. Midterm (median follow-up time 640 days) mortality or hospitalization due to heart failure was significantly higher in patients with a posterior mitral leaflet length of 7–10 mm.

Conclusion

In the setting of experienced heart valve centres only a few of the complexity criteria proposed by the GCS impact on procedural and clinical outcomes. Even in the case of complex or very complex mitral valve morphology, TEER can be performed effectively with reduction of MR to ≤2 in 88% of cases.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: None.

Predicting procedural success in patients treated with Cardioband system for severe tricuspid regurgitation by employing a random forest algorithm

Background

Severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is associated with high morbidity and mortality despite optimal medical treatment. Transcatheter tricuspid valve intervention (TTVI) is therefore emerging as a novel treatment option, fueling the hope to prolong survival and reduce rehospitalization for heart failure. Obviously, procedural success of TTVI is an important determinant of survival, but predictors for procedural success in patients treated with Cardioband system, which mimics the surgical approach by implanting an annular reduction system and hence targets tricuspid annulus dilatation as the central pathology in most patients, are largely elusive.

Purpose

This study aims to refine prediction of procedural success in patients with severe TR undergoing TTVI with Cardioband system by employing a random forest algorithm.

Methods

Procedural success was evaluated in 72 patients enrolled at two tertiary centers in Germany between 2018 and 2020. Key inclusion criterion was TR ≥ III/V° with high symptomatic burden despite optimal medical treatment. Procedural success war defined as patient alive at the end of the procedure, successful Cardioband implantation, and TR reduction ≥ II/V° as assessed on transthoracic echocardiography before discharge. Since 66.7% of patients were classified as “success”, a synthetic minority over-sampling technique was applied in order to train the random forest algorithm on a balanced data set.

Results

A random forest algorithm reached 85.4% accuracy (AUC: 0.923) in predicting procedural success in a balanced data set using eight parameters from pre-procedural echocardiography as input variables. Partial dependence analysis revealed that enlargement of the tricuspid valve (TV) anteroseptal diameter was most important for model accuracy. Applied to the real-world data set (24 patients classified as “failure” and 48 patients classified as “success”), the now trained random forest algorithm predicted procedural success with high sensitivity (70.8%) and specificity (100.0%), significantly outperforming the no information rate (p-value: 0.0069). Patients with low probability for success were characterized by impaired right ventricular function (TAPSE: 15.5±3.63 mm) and enlarged right sided cardiac diameters (basal right ventricular diameter: 51.6±3.79 mm; TV anteroseptal diameter: 45.0±5.10 mm). Notably, systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP) and TV effective regurgitant orifice area were negatively correlated (R: −0.3004, p-value: 0.0322), and elevation in sPAP was attenuated in patients with low probability for procedural success (sPAP: 34.0±11.7 mmHg).

Conclusion

A random forest algorithm enables precise prediction of procedural success in patients treated with Cardioband system. TR reduction ≥ II/V° appears less achievable in patients with advanced stages of right heart failure, emphasizing the importance of adequate patient selection and timing of intervention.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: None.

P630 Recovery of non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis and severe aortic regurgitation in a young patient with acute promyelocytic leukemia

Introduction

Non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) is characterised by non-infectious vegetations on the cardiac valves and is typically seen in patients with malignancies or systemic lupus erythematosus. Risk of thromboembolic events is high and treatment of choice consists of anticoagulation, if feasible, as well as treatment of the underlying disease. Severe valvular dysfunction is rarely seen and in these cases, surgical valve replacement is usually performed.

Case presentation

A 28-year old female patient presented with left-sided hemiparesis persisting for several hours. Angio-CT scan of the brain revealed a branch occlusion of the middle cerebral artery with a correlating infarct core and without an area of penumbra. Blood tests showed decreased thrombocyte levels (45 x109/l). Given the thrombocytopenia and the time between the onset of symptoms and presentation, no thrombolysis was administered.

A subsequently performed transoesophageal echocardiography for diagnostic work-up of cardioembolic sources of stroke revealed a right ventricular thrombus and vegetations on the aortic valve causing severe aortic regurgitation with a holodiastolic flow reversal in the descending aorta (Fig. 1 (a) and (b) showing a large central coaptation defect). There were no of signs of infection or inflammation and blood cultures remained negative, thus infectious endocarditis was unlikely. A bone marrow biopsy led to the diagnosis of acute promyeolocytic leukemia (PML). Despite the inherent high risk of bleeding due to PML, anticoagulation with unfractionated heparin was initiated and treatment with prednisolone, all-trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide was started. After three weeks of therapy aortic valve vegetation size decreased considerably leading to dramatic reduction of aortic regurgitation (Fig. 1 (c) and (d)). No further embolic event or bleeding occurred.

Conclusion

This case is remarkable in many aspects. First, PML typically causes bleeding complications whereas NBTE is characterised by a high risk of thromboembolic events. Thus, the decision to start or not to start anticoagulation is challenging.

Second, NBTE, unlike infectious endocarditis, rarely causes severe valvular dysfunction and reported treatment in most cases consisted of surgical valve replacement or repair. However, in this case, conservative treatment alone led to almost complete resolution of valvular vegetations and of aortic regurgitation.

We conclude that conservative treatment of severe valvular disease in the setting of NBTE should be strongly considered, especially given the small number of cases reported worldwide.

Abstract P630 Figure. Fig.1

P4725Prognostic relevance of the COAPT inclusion criteria in real-world patients with secondary mitral regurgitation undergoing mitraclip implantation

Background

The recently published Cardiovascular Outcomes Assessment of the mitraclip Percutaneous Therapy for Heart Failure Patients with Functional Mitral Regurgitation (COAPT) randomized trial has shown a huge benefit in the survival of patients with systolic heart failure and functional mitral regurgitation treated with MitraClip. However, patients in COAPT were highly selected and the clinical course in real-world patients with and without fulfilment of the trial inclusion criteria is unclear.

Methods

Our study examined the clinical outcome in consecutive patients from our Heart Centre with reduced left-ventricular ejection fraction (EF<50%) undergoing mitraclip for mitral regurgitation of dominant functional etiology by the presence of the inclusion criteria of the COAPT trial (left ventricular ejection fraction >20%, left ventricular end-systolic dimension <70 mm, non-commissural primary jet, estimated pulmonary artery systolic pressure <70 mmHg, mitral valve orifice area >4 cm2, no prior mitral valve leaflet surgery or any currently implanted prosthetic mitral valve or any prior transcatheter mitral valve procedure). The composite endpoint of all-cause mortality or heart failure hospitalization and the endpoint of heart failure hospitalization were analysed.

Results

Among 123 patients who underwent mitraclip implantation 60.2% fulfilled the inclusion criteria of COAPT. Overall, 54 patients (46.6%) died or were hospitalized for heart failure during a median follow-up time of 19 months. The composite endpoint was significantly less frequent (p=0.01) in patients fulfilling the COAPT selection criteria than in those not fulfilling the criteria, with an estimated 1-year event rate of 24.6% vs 49.1%. Patients with COAPT inclusion criteria had a 49% lower hazard of the composite endpoint (95% CI 12–70%, p=0.015). Heart failure hospitalization was significantly less frequent (p=0.039) in patients fulfilling COAPT selection criteria than in those who did not, with an estimated 1-year event rate of 19% vs. 36.8%. Patients with COAPT inclusion criteria had a 50% lower hazard for heart failure hospitalization (95% CI 1–75%, p=0.046). Of note, the 1-year all-cause mortality in our patients fulfilling COAPT inclusion criteria was lower compared to the renowned COAPT trial (10% vs. 19%).

Conclusion

In this single center study the outcome of patients with functional mitral regurgitation undergoing mitraclip therapy was significantly worse in patients not fulfilling COAPT inclusion criteria, indicating that these criteria might help identify futility. The remarkable difference in outcome between real-world patients and COAPT trial patients warrants further study to elucidate underlying causes, which might affect the transferability of the COAPT results.

P4722Using the multidimensional prognostic index (MPI) to predict outcome in patients undergoing transcatheter mitral valve repair with MitraClip: a prospective observational single centre study

Background

Selection of patients who benefit from percutaneous mitral valve repair (PMVR) is challenging. We used the multidimensional prognostic index (MPI) to evaluate patients' prognosis.

Methods

We conducted a prospective observational single centre study, including patients who did undergo PMVR from 11/2017 to 07/2018. MPI score was used for geriatric assessment and calculated from 63 separate items distributed in eight domains including instrumental activities of daily living, mental status, nutrition, risk of pressure ulcers, comorbidity, medication and marital/cohabitation status.

Results

82 patients were included. Mean MPI-Score was 0.22±0.21. 41 patients (50%) belonged to MPI-1 group (low risk), 37 (45.1%) to MPI-2 group (medium risk) und 4 patients (4.9%) to MPI-3 group (high risk). Due to the low number of patients in MPI-3 group, MPI-2 group and MPI-3 group were combined for statistical analysis. Baseline characteristics, functional assessment and outcome of patients are shown in Table1. During follow-up 4 patients died. All of these belonged to the higher risk group MPI 2/3.

Table1 MPI 1 MPI 2+3 p value Age 73.2±8.8 78.9±7.6 0.002 6 min walk 303±107 175±122 <0.001 EuroScore II (%) 6.61±7.24 7.6±5.55 0.49 EF (%) 43.7±17.2 39.4±15.6 0.36 NT-pro BNP 4611±5413 6045±12670 0.54 Diabetes 7 (17.1) 16 (39) 0.027 Coronary artery disease 25 (61) 26 (63.4) 0.82 Arterial hypertension 26 (63.4) 31 (75.6) 0.23 Barthel index baseline 98±4 80±24 <0.001 Barthel index 30 days 97±5 82±24 <0.001 MLWHFQ baseline 45.7±20.9 49.1±14.5 0.39 MLWHFQ 30 days 38.4±25 34.7±18.2 0.53 ICU stay (days) 1.7±1.2 3.9±7.4 0.069 Death at 30 days 0 4 (10.5) 0.033

Conclusion

The MPI score is associated with age and impaired functional capacity at baseline but not with traditional cardiovascular prognostic markers. Thus, MPI may provide additional prognostic information on mortality and functional outcome of patients beyond established risk scores.