Albumin Is Predictive of 1-Year Mortality After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement

A validated model for predicting 1-year outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) does not exist. TAVR-specific risk models may benefit from frailty markers, and sarcopenia may represent an objective frailty marker. This study assessed the predictive ability of sarcopenia and frailty markers on 1-year mortality after TAVR.

We evaluated 470 patients undergoing TAVR at a single center. Frailty was assessed using four markers: gait speed, hand grip strength, serum albumin, and Katz activities of daily living. Sarcopenia was measured as the cross-sectional psoas muscle area on pre-TAVR computed tomography. Performance of four models incorporating The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality, frailty, or sarcopenia metrics, or both, for predicting 1-year mortality was assessed with area under the curve, Hosmer-Lemeshow statistics, and calibration plots.

A total of 63 deaths (13.4%) deaths occurred by 1 year. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality alone was poorly predictive of 1-year mortality (area under the curve, 0.52; 95% confidence interval, 0.42 to 0.68). Only the model including sarcopenia and all frailty markers (area under the curve, 0.61; 95% confidence interval, 0.53 to 0.68) significantly improved predictive ability compared with The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality alone (p = 0.05). Albumin was the only frailty marker significantly associated with increased risk for 1-year mortality (p = 0.03). Psoas muscle area, as a surrogate for sarcopenia, was not significantly associated with increased risk for 1-year mortality.

Most of the commonly used pre-TAVR risk assessments are poorly predictive of 1-year mortality. Albumin was the only frailty marker that was associated with higher mortality. Future studies should investigate whether optimization of nutritional status can improve outcomes after TAVR.