Prevalence, Factors Associated With, and Prognostic Effects of Preoperative Anemia on Short- and Long-Term Mortality in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

Background There is scant information on the prevalence and factors associated with preoperative anemia in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) and whether it is associated with mortality. We sought to determine the prevalence and factors associated with preoperative anemia in addition to the prognostic effects of the various levels of preoperative hemoglobin level on mortality in patients undergoing TAVI. Methods and Results Ten-center observational study encompassing 1696 patients with aortic stenosis who underwent TAVI was conducted. Anemia was defined by the World Health Organization criteria (hemoglobin 50% of patients undergoing TAVI. Various baseline factors were related to anemia, which in turn was associated with 1-year mortality. Patients with anemia received more transfusions but mostly for indications unrelated to overt bleeding, whereas transfusion was independently associated with both early and 1-year mortality. These findings indicate that optimization of baseline factors related to preoperative anemia, in addition to more strict criteria of the use of blood products, may improve outcome after TAVI.