Functional and metabolic frailty predicts mortality in patients undergoing TAVI: Insights from the OBSERVANT II study

• Published in: European journal of internal medicine 2022-12, Vol.106, p.90-96
• Main Authors: Massussi, Mauro, Adamo, Marianna, Rosato, Stefano, Seccareccia, Fulvia, Barbanti, Marco, Biancari, Fausto, Tarantini, Giuseppe, Immè, Sebastiano, Vignali, Luigi, Badoni, Gabriella, Ussia, Gian Paolo, Costa, Giuliano, Baiocchi, Massimo, Metra, Marco, Baglio, Giovanni, D'Errigo, Paola
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0953-6205; 1879-0828
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejim.2022.09.022

•Frailty is highly prevalent among elderly subjects undergoing TAVI and it should be assessed in the therapeutic decision-making for those patients.•We examined 1-year survival of a large real-world cohort of TAVI patients treated with new generation devices and stratified in 4 groups according to a comprehensive evaluation of frailty.•We concluded that the occurrence of combined frailty (functional and metabolic) had a significant and incremental impact on 1-year mortality. Despite the prognostic role of frailty among elderly patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is known, its assessment still represents a challenge due to the multitude of scales proposed in literature. The aim of this study was to define the prognostic impact of a simple combined frailty model including both functional and metabolic parameters in a large cohort of patients undergoing TAVI with new generation devices. We examined 1-year survival of patients affected by aortic valve stenosis treated with new generation TAVI devices from the OBSERVANT II study. Frailty of patients undergoing TAVI was stratified in four groups according to a combination of functional (geriatric status scale - GSS) and metabolic (global nutritional risk index - GNRI) assessment. Among 1985 patients included in the analysis, 1008 (51%) had no significant frailty, 246 (12%) had only functional impairment, 522 (26%) had only metabolic impairment and 209 (11%) had both functional and metabolic impairment. The presence of combined functional and metabolic frailty was associated with a two-fold increased risk of 1-year all-cause mortality (HR 2.06 [95% CI 1.35–3.14]; p = 0.001). GNRI as a single parameter had a lower impact on mortality (HR 1.48 [95% CI 1.05 – 2.09]; p = 0.027), whereas GSS did not impact on mortality (HR 1.23 [95% CI 0.77–1.97]; p = 0.386). In a large real-world cohort of patients undergoing TAVI with new generation devices, combined functional and metabolic frailty had a significant and incremental impact on 1-year mortality.