Fate of Tricuspid Regurgitation in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Mitral Valve Repair.

BACKGROUND Mitral valve repair may lead to alterations of tricuspid regurgitation (TR). AIMS We investigated alterations, predictors and prognostic relevance of TR evolution in a large-scale multicentre population of patients undergoing transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVR) via MitraClip. METHODS In total, we included 531 TMVR-patients with at least one available follow-up echocardiography. TR-improvement was defined as a TR ≥II at baseline, which showed a decline of at least one TR-categorization. RESULTS Distribution of pre-procedural TR severity was TR0/I 41% (220/531), TRII 39% (209/531) and TR≥III 19% (102/531), respectively. Follow-up echocardiography was at 308±187days. TR severity improved to TR0/I 49% (259/531), TRII 35% (183/531) and TRIII 17% (89/531), p=0.003. Out of 311 patients with TR≥II at baseline, 41% (127/311) showed TR-improvement. Atrial fibrillation (AF), residual mitral regurgitation ≥II (rMR) and tricuspid annular diameter (TAD) remained variables which prevented TR-improvement [odds ratio 0.49(0.29-0.84), 0.47(0.27-0.81) & 0.97(0.93-0.997), respectively]. TR-improvement was associated with better event-free survival regarding post-procedural heart-failure hospitalization (HHF) [hazard ratio 0.6(0.38-0.94)]. The main changes of TR-severity occurred within 3-month post TMVR (p=0.006), while there were only minor TR-changes between 3 and 12-month of follow-up (p=0.813). CONCLUSIONS TR-improvement was frequent after TMVR. Predictors preventing TR-improvement were AF, post-procedural rMR, and TAD. Furthermore, TR-improvement was an early phenomenon primarily occurring within the first three months post TMVR and served as a suitable marker of reduced HHF.