ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The study sought to examine the effect of coronary artery disease (CAD) on mortality in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). BACKGROUND: CAD is common in the TAVR population. However, there are conflicting data on the prognostic significance of CAD and its treatment in this population. METHODS: The authors analyzed 1,270 consecutive patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) undergoing TAVR at 3 Israeli centers. They investigated the association of CAD severity (no CAD, nonsevere CAD [i.e., SYNTAX score (SS) <22], severe CAD [SS >22]) and revascularization completeness ("reasonable" incomplete revascularization [ICR] [i.e., residual SS <8]; ICR [residual SS >8]) with all-cause mortality following TAVR using a Cox proportional hazards ratio model adjusted for multiple prognostic variables. RESULTS: Of the 1,270 patients, 817 (64%) had no CAD, 331 (26%) had nonsevere CAD, and 122 (10%) had severe CAD. Over a median follow-up of 1.9 years, 311 (24.5%) patients died. Mortality was higher in the severe CAD and the ICR groups, but not in the nonsevere CAD or "reasonable" ICR groups, versus no CAD. After multivariate adjustment, both severe CAD (hazard ratio: 2.091; p = 0.017) and ICR (hazard ratio: 1.720; p = 0.031) were associated with increased mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Only severe CAD was associated with increased mortality post-TAVR. More complete revascularization pre-TAVR may attenuate the association of severe CAD and mortality.