Coronary artery disease severity and aortic stenosis: clinical outcomes according to SYNTAX score in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation

In this study the authors looked at the impact of coronary artery disease (CAD) in a single series of 445 patients undergoing TAVI for aortic valve stenosis.  The pre-established primary endpoint of the study was a composite of cardiovascular death, stroke, or myocardial infarction (MI)—at 1 year. Patients were divided into three groups according to the severity of CAD as determined by the SYNTAX score (SS): no CAD, CAD with SS ≤ 22 and CAD with SS >22. At 1-year, increased CAD severity was associated with higher rates of the primary endpoint. This was mainly driven by a difference in cardiovascular death. The risk of stroke and MI was similar in all three groups.