Gender differences in patients undergoing Trans Catheter Aortic Valve Implantation

Introduction: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) become a standard of care treatment for patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS). The impact of gender on clinical outcomes following TAVI is considerably discrepant in the literature. The aim of our study was to investigate gender related differences relating to TAVI in our Center.

Material & Methods: All consecutive TAVI patients who underwent the procedure in shaare Zedek medical center (SZMC) were included. Patients were retrospectively analyzed for baseline demographical & echocardiographic characteristics as well as clinical outcomes on follow up.

Results: 976 patients underwent TAVI between 2008 and 2021in SZMC. 479 (49.1%) were females (F). Mean age was similar between females and males (81.6±8.0 versus 80.7±7.5 years respectively; p=0.098). Females had significantly lower rate of chronic renal disease (20.7% vs. 37.6%; p<0.0001) as well as history of ischemic heart disease (35.5% vs 60.4%; p<0.0001) compared to males. More females had previous mitral valve surgery compared to males prior to the TAVI procedure (4.7% vs 1.8%; p= 0.013). Following TAVI, the rate of cardiac hospitalization was similar between the genders (18.2% among females versus 17.7% in males; p=0.853). On a median follow up of 510 days (103 – 1229) no significant differences were noted between the genders in cardiac hospitalization (M 17.7% vs F 18.2%, p=0.853) or in crude mortality rate (M 29.0% vs F 27.1% p=0.524

Conclusion: The prevalence of females was similar to males in our TAVI program. Mid and long term mortality was similar regardless of gender.