Prognostic Value of Baseline Sarcopenia on 1-Year Mortality in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

ABSTRACT There is limited data regarding the association between sarcopenia and clinical outcomes in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). From the prospective ASAN-TAVI registry, we evaluated a total of 522 patients with severe aortic stenosis who underwent TAVI between March 2010 and November 2018. Routine pre-TAVI computed tomography (CT) scan was used to calculate the skeletal muscle index (SMI), which was defined as skeletal muscle area at the L3 level divided by height squared; subject patients were classified into the sex-specific tertile groups of SMI. The patients’ mean age was 79 years and 49% were men. Mean SMI values were 41.3±6.7 cm2/m2 in men and 34.1±6.5 cm2/m2 in women. The Kaplan–Meier estimates of all-cause mortality at 12 months were higher in the low-tertile group than in the mid- and high-tertile groups (15.5%, 7.1%, and 6.2%, respectively; P=0.036). In multivariate analysis, low-tertile of SMI was an independent predictor of mortality (vs. high-tertile of SMI, hazard ratio 2.69; 95% confidence interval, 1.18–6.12; P=0.019). The all-cause mortality was substantially higher in the groups with high-surgical risk plus low SMI tertile. The risk assessment with addition of SMI on conventional STS-PROM score was significantly improved by statistical measures of model reclassification and discrimination. In patients undergoing TAVI, sarcopenia measured by SMI was significantly associated with an increased risk of 1-year mortality. The prognostic impact of SMI-measured sarcopenia was more prominent in patients with high surgical risks.