Early Transcatheter Aortic Valve Function With and Without Therapeutic Anticoagulation

Prosthetic leaflet thrombosis is a growing concern in transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Given the uncertainty of best practices for antiplatelet and anticoagulation therapies in the post-TAVR period, additional evidence regarding the impact of anticoagulation on prosthetic valve function after TAVR is needed.

Patients undergoing native-valve TAVR at a single academic institution between 2012 and 2015 were analyzed based on any anticoagulant use at hospital discharge post TAVR. Changes in prosthetic valve peak velocity and mean gradient were assessed based on transthoracic echocardiograms performed immediately following valve implant and at 4-week follow-up. Multivariate regression analyses were performed to explore the impact of anticoagulation status on early TAVR valve performance.

For 403 patients, there were no available data to analyze. Of those, 29.6% were discharged on anticoagulation. Following TAVR, the average mean prosthetic valve gradient was 11.8 ± 5.6 mm Hg and peak velocity was 2.33 ± 0.52 m/s. There were no significant differences between anticoagulated and non-anticoagulated groups in the mean or peak gradients or velocity immediately following implant or at 4 weeks, which remained true following multivariate adjustment (P=.80 for delta mean gradient; P=.91 for delta peak velocity).

Our data suggest that the absence of anticoagulation is not associated with short-term degradation in TAVR performance and do not support the routine use of anticoagulation following native-valve TAVR.