Objectives: To explore the prevalence of smoking, and its association with clinical and mortality outcome among patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).
Background: Less data exist regarding the effect of baseline smoking status on clinical and mortality outcome among patients undergoing TAVR.
Methods: Consecutive patients who underwent TAVR at two high volume Dutch centers were included. Smoking status was prospectively questioned by a structured interview at admission. Primary endpoint was 1-year all-cause mortality after TAVR.
Results: A total of 913 consecutive patients (80.1 ± 7.6 years; logistic EuroSCORE: 16.5 ± 9.9%) who underwent TAVR for severe aortic valve stenosis were included. There were 47% (n = 432) males, and 57% (n = 522) never-smokers, and 35% (n = 317) prior-smokers, and 8% (n = 74) current-smokers. Smokers (i.e., prior-smokers or current-smokers) were younger compared to never-smokers (78.9 ± 7.9 and 76.4 ± 8.0 vs. 81.3 ± 7.1, P < 0.000, respectively). Median follow-up time was 365 (interquartile range [IQR]: 280-365) days. Overall, prior-smoking was not associated with all-cause mortality at 1-year following TAVR (hazard ratio [HR] 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.55-1.23). After stratification according to sex, male prior-smokers showed better 1-year survival after TAVR than male never-smokers (12% vs. 20%; P = 0.018, respectively, HR 0.52, 95% CI 0.29-0.89), while this reversed effect was not observed among female prior-smokers versus female never-smokers after TAVR (HR 1.70, 95% CI 0.95-3.05).
Conclusions: Overall, baseline prior-smokers had similar 1-year mortality outcome after TAVR compared with baseline never-smokers. However, there was a reversed association between baseline prior-smoking status and 1-year mortality after TAVR among males, which could partially be explained due to the favorable baseline characteristics.
Keywords: TAVR; mortality; paradox; smoking.
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.