Impact of right ventricular function and ventriculo-arterial coupling in prognosis after percutaneous edge-to-edge mitral repair

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Abstract Background Left ventricular systolic function is widely used as selection criteria for appropriateness of percutaneous edge-to-edge mitral repair in patients with significant mitral regurgitation (MR) and high surgical risk. Although right ventricular (RV) systolic function and ventriculo-arterial coupling (VAC) have demonstrated its relevance in heart failure prognosis as well, few data are available regarding this procedure. Purpose To study the value of baseline RV function and VAC determined by transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) on imaging and clinical prognosis. Methods We evaluated all the consecutive patients in which a percutaneous mitral edge-to-edge repair with the MitraClip system was performed between 2010 and 2020 in our tertiary university hospital. Baseline RV function was considered depressed if TAPSE <16 mm, tissue Doppler S'<9.5 cm/s or fractional area change (FAC) <35% on TTE. VAC was calculated as ratio of TAPSE by pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) from the same studies. Follow-up echocardiographic measurements were evaluated and clinical events were collected from medical records. Results We included 88 patients (64.8% males, 76±10 years) with MR grade ≥3. MR etiology was classified as functional 44.3%, organic in 35.2% and mixed in 20.5%. Previous to the procedure left ventricular systolic function was mildly depressed (LVEF 44.5±15.3%) and 33 patients (37.5%) showed an impaired RV systolic function. At 6 months TTE the prevalence of RV dysfunction lower to 27.3%. Patients with initial RV systolic dysfunction showed greater improvement in TAPSE (3.2 vs −0.53 mm; p=0.052) and FAC (8 vs 0.2%; p=0.016) at 6 months compared to those with normal baseline RV function. However, this variable was not associated with any relevant clinical event during the follow up. Baseline VAC demonstrated a significant inverse correlation with change in TAPSE (r −0.42; p=0.018), FAC (r −0.37; p=0.024) and S' (r −0.52; p=0.041) at 6 months. Among patients with initial RV impairment, VAC was lower in those who persisted with RV systolic dysfunction at 6 months (0.41 vs 0.49; p=0.054). Moreover, VAC was significantly associated with NYHA class ≥3 (0.48 vs 0.63; p=0.042) and cardiovascular hospitalization (0.53 vs 0.63; p=0.07), with a correlation with number of admissions (r −0.27; p=0.053). Conclusion In a percutaneous mitral edge-to-edge repair population previous presence of RV systolic dysfunction was not associated with clinical events during the follow up. Conversely, VAC was able to identify RV systolic function recovery and was associated with functional class and cardiovascular hospitalizations. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.