Long-Term Durability of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Prostheses: Echocardiographic Follow Up Beyond Five Years

Aims: to determine functional changes of balloon-expandable, self expandable and mechanically expanding transcatheter valve prosthesis, with long-term echocardiography follow-up beyond 5 years according to the 2017 EAPCI/ESC/EACTS definition of valve durability. Methods and results: between 2007 and 2014, 52 consecutive patients (mean age 82,17±1,12 years) were enrolled in our prospective single-centre registry; median follow-up was 6.4 years. Mean pressure gradients remained stable over time and structural valve deterioration occurred in 4 patients (7,7%). There was one case (1.9%) of severe SVD (new severe intraprosthetic aortic regurgitation). There were 3 cases (5.8%) of moderate SVD (mean 5.7 years post-implantation, range from 5 to 6.4 years). 1 case was due to new moderate AR and 2 cases to restenosis (increase in mean gradient ≥10mmHg). Conclusions: Long-term transcatheter aortic valve function is excellent. In our study, 92% of patients remained free of SVD between 4.4 and 11 years post-implantation. The incidence of severe SVD was