Comparison of transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography for transcatheter aortic valve replacement sizing in high-risk patients.

Abstract

Untreated symptomatic high-grade aortic stenosis remains a lethal disease requiring individually adapted valve replacement. High-risk surgical patients benefit from transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), but there is no uniform standard for patient selection and valve sizing and it is still unclear whether transthoracic (TTE) or transesophageal (TEE) echocardiography is superior in preprocedural aortic annulus sizing. As preprocedural sizing of the native aortic annulus diameter is crucial to outcome and survival, we report the results of a direct comparison between preprocedural sizing with TTE and TEE including subsequent outcomes in a high-risk TAVR population.