Carotid artery disease and periprocedural stroke risk after transcatheter aortic valve implantation

Objective/Background: To examine the role of carotid stenosis (CS) and other independent risk factors of perioperative stroke, following transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Materials and Methods: Using data from the National Inpatient Sample database for analysis, patients who underwent TAVI were identified using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. Various preoperative and perioperative risk factors and their association with perioperative strokes were studied. Results: Data on 7566 patients who underwent a TAVI procedure from 2012 to 2013 were extracted. The average age of the patient population was 81.2 ± 0.32 years. The overall perioperative stroke rate in our patient cohort was 2.79%. Majority (94.6%) of the strokes were ischemic. Multivariate analysis showed the following independent risk factors for perioperative strokes after TAVI: female gender odds ratio (OR) = 2.25 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.42–3.57), higher van Walraven score OR = 6.6 (95% CI = 3.71–11.73), bilateral CS OR = 4.46 (95% CI = 2.03–9.82), and TAVI with a cardiac procedure done under cardiopulmonary bypass OR = 2.84 (95% CI = 1.57–5.14). Conclusion: Bilateral carotid disease is a significant risk factor for perioperative strokes following TAVI. Preoperative screening with carotid Doppler to identify high-risk patients appears to be warranted. In addition, patients of female gender were found to have an increased risk for carotid disease.