Incremental Prognostic Use of Left Ventricular Global Longitudinal Strain in Asymptomatic/Minimally Symptomatic Patients With Severe Bioprosthetic Aortic Stenosis Undergoing Redo Aortic Valve Replacement

Background— With improved survival of patients undergoing primary bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement (AVR), reoperation to relieve severe prosthetic aortic stenosis (PAS) is increasing. Timing of redo surgery in asymptomatic/minimally symptomatic patients remains controversial. Left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) is a marker of subclinical LV dysfunction. In asymptomatic/minimally symptomatic patients with severe PAS undergoing redo AVR, we sought to determine whether LV-GLS provides incremental prognostic use. Methods and Results— We studied 191 patients with severe bioprosthetic PAS (63±16 years, 58% men) who underwent redo AVR between 2000 and 2012 (excluding mechanical PAS, severe other valve disease transcatheter AVR, and LV ejection fraction 2 , mean aortic valve gradient ≥40 mm Hg, and dimensionless index 2+ aortic regurgitation. Median LV-GLS was −14.2% (−11.4, −17.1%). At 4.2±3 years, 41 (22%) patients met the composite end point (2.5% deaths and 1% strokes at 30 days postoperatively). On multivariable Cox survival analysis, LV-GLS was independently associated with longer-term composite events (hazard ratio, 1.21; 95% confidence interval, 1.10–1.33), P P P Conclusions— In asymptomatic/minimally symptomatic patients with severe bioprosthetic PAS undergoing redo AVR, baseline LV-GLS provides incremental prognostic use over established predictors and could potentially aid in surgical timing and risk stratification.