Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, General Medicine, Heart Disease / 18.02.2014
TAVR for Aortic Stenosis: Improvement in Quality of Life
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Caroline A. Kim, MD, MS;
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Boston, MA 02215.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Kim: We conducted a systematic review of 62 studies that examined functional status and quality of life in patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement (AVR) for their symptomatic severe aortic valve stenosis. In 11,205 patients who underwent TAVR, a clinically meaningful improvement was seen in physical functional measures and disease-specific quality of life measures, whereas improvement in psychological measures or more general health measures were modest and inconsistent. Given the dismal prognosis of severe aortic stenosis treated conservatively, it was clear that transcatheter AVR improved functional status and quality of life. However, there was insufficient evidence that compares these patient-centered outcomes between transcatheter AVR and surgical AVR.
(more…)