RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Transcatheter mitral valve-in-valve implantation (MVIV) has emerged as a viable treatment option in patients at high risk for surgery. Occasionally, despite appropriate puncture location and adequate dilation, difficulty is encountered in advancing the transcatheter heart valve across interatrial septum. CASE SUMMARY: We describe a case of a 79-year-old woman with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), prior surgical bioprosthetic aortic and mitral valve replacement implanted in 2007, atrial fibrillation, and Group II pulmonary hypertension who presented with progressively worsening heart failure symptoms secondary to severe bioprosthetic mitral valve stenosis and moderate-severe mitral regurgitation. Her symptoms had worsened over several months, with multiple admissions at other institutions with treatment for both COPD exacerbation and heart failure. Transoesophageal echocardiogram demonstrated preserved ejection fraction, normal functioning aortic valve, and dysfunctional mitral prosthesis with severe stenosis (mean gradient 13 mmHg) and moderate-severe regurgitation. After a multi-disciplinary heart team discussion, the patient underwent a transcatheter MVIV implantation. During the case, inability in advancing the transcatheter heart valve (THV) across interatrial septum despite adequate septal balloon pre-dilation was successfully managed with the support of a stiff 'buddy wire' anchored in the left upper pulmonary vein using the same septal puncture. The patient tolerated the procedure well and was discharged home. DISCUSSION: Operators should be aware of potential strategies to advance the THV when difficulty is encountered in crossing the atrial septum despite adequate septal preparation. One such strategy is the use of stiff 'buddy wire' for support which avoids the need for more aggressive septal dilatation.
RESUMEN
Anatomical SYNTAX score (SS1) and SYNTAX score II (SS2) are often utilized to determine the optimal revascularization strategy. Although US veterans have unique characteristics that may affect outcomes after revascularization, the prognostic values of SS1 and SS2 in veterans have not yet been validated. We performed a retrospective analysis of consecutive veteran patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for left main and/or 3-vessel disease from 2009 to 2014. SS1 and SS2 were calculated for each patient. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. The prognostic values of SS1 and SS2 were compared by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The predicted 4-year mortality derived from SS2 was compared with the observed 4-year mortality estimated from Kaplan-Meier analysis. After exclusion, 286 patients (99% male) were included. Among 286 patients, 79 patients (27.6%) had left main disease, 151 (52.8%) underwent PCI, and 135 (47.2%) underwent CABG. Overall mortality was 27.6% at a median follow-up of 5.0 years. SS2 had better discriminative ability for all-cause mortality than SS1 (c-index 0.79 vs 0.52, p <0.001). Observed and predicted 4-year mortality correlated well in patients with low and intermediate SS2 in both PCI and CABG cohorts, but observed mortality was higher than predicted in the PCI cohort with high SS2 (observed 54.7% vs predicted 40.5%). In conclusion, observed and predicted 4-year mortality derived from SS2 correlated well in patients with low and intermediate SS2, but SS2 underestimated mortality in the PCI cohort with high SS2.
