Real-world data accumulated in Europe outside of a clinical trial support both the safety and the benefit of two transcatheter edge-to-edge (TEER) devices designed specifically for the treatment of tricuspid regurgitation (TR).
For the TriClip system (Abbott), the data were drawn from a prospective postmarketing registry, and for the EVOQUE system (Edwards Lifesciences), data were generated by a compassionate use program.
The TriClip system is approved and available in Europe, but neither system has regulatory approval in the United States.
The two sets of data, each presented at the annual meeting of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions, are consistent with controlled trials. Each system was associated with high rates of procedural success, low rates of adverse events, and sustained improvements in quality of life.
Real-World Backup for TRILUMINATE
Presented just days before the pivotal multinational TRILUMINATE trial was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the bRIGHT postmarketing study of the TriClip device demonstrated a procedural rate of success and a subsequent reduction in TR that was at least as good but in a substantially sicker patient population.
“To appreciate these results, you have to put into perspective the baseline TR in our population,” reported Philipp Lurz, MD, PhD, of the Heart Center Leipzig, University of Leipzig, Germany. Whereas only 70% of those randomized in TRILUMINATE had grade 4 (massive) or 5 (torrential) TR, the proportion was 90% in bRIGHT.
The proportion with TR of moderate or less severity was 77% when assessed at 30 days in bRIGHT versus 72%, however, when assessed at 1 year in TRILUMINATE. In addition, procedural success was 99% in both studies even though patients in bRIGHT were on average older and had more comorbidities. At baseline, 80% of bRIGHT patients were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III or IV heart failure versus 59% of those in TRILUMINATE.
TRILUMINATE data, presented prior to publication at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology earlier this year, did not associate the transcatheter TR repair with a reduction in mortality or a reduction in hospitalization for heart failure, which were the first two of three hierarchical endpoints, but it did show benefit on the third, which was quality of life. As measured by the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ), patients in the transcatheter repair group gained 12.3 points versus 0.6 points (P < .001) on medical therapy.
In the bRIGHT registry, patients gained 19 points in the KCCQ score after treatment. By 30 days, the proportion of patients in NHYA class III/IV had fallen from 80% to 20%. The major adverse event rate of 2.5% at 30 days was only modestly higher than the 1.7% rate at 30 days in TRILUMINATE.
“The safety profile remained strong despite the sicker population treated in the registry,” reported Lurz, whose results were simultaneously published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).
The bRIGHT registry analysis was based on 511 patients treated at 26 sites in Europe. Lurz characterized it as “the first prospective, single-arm, open-label, multicenter, postmarket registry to evaluate the safety and performance of any transcatheter tricuspid valve repair system.”
In a panel discussion following the presentation, Nicole Karam, MD, PhD, codirector of the heart valve unit, Hospital Georges Pompidou, Paris, praised a study of TEER tricuspid valve device in the real world, but she pointed out that the question of who to treat remains unanswered. Although symptom relief has value for a condition that can impose large deficits in quality of life, she called for more data to identify optimal candidates, particularly in the persistent absence of a major effect on hard endpoints.
Lurz agreed. In bRIGHT, predictors of a moderate or less TR at discharge included a smaller tethering distance, a smaller right ventricular end diastolic dimension, a smaller right atrial volume, and a smaller tricuspid annular diameter.
Each of these predictors argues for earlier treatment, he said, even if later treatment in a clinical trial provides a greater likelihood of eventually demonstrating benefits on hard endpoints.
“Remarkable Reduction”
The data from the much smaller compassionate use evaluation of the EVOQUE system generated similar evidence of safety and benefit while also making the point that earlier intervention offers a greater opportunity for preventing irreversible progression. With much longer follow up, the compassionate-use analysis, which involved patients even sicker than those included in bRIGHT, suggested these repairs are durable.
In this retrospective analysis of 38 patients treated at eight centers in Europe, the United States, and Canada, the mortality climbed steadily over 2 years of follow-up, reaching 29% at 2 years despite the fact that TR was reduced to < 1% after the procedure and remained durably suppressed at a median follow-up of 520 days.
The tricuspid valve repair with the EVOQUE system “was associated with a remarkable reduction in heart failure symptoms and significant improvement in NYHA functional class up to a maximum of 1,074 days after the intervention,” reported Lukas Stolz, MD, an interventional cardiologist at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich.
In the data he presented at EuroPCR, which was published simultaneously as a letter in JACC, he said that favorable reverse remodeling of the right ventricle, which was observed as early as 30 days after the procedure, was maintained at long-term follow up.
The uncontrolled data from the compassionate analysis, like the bRIGHT registry, could not confirm that tricuspid valve repair changes the trajectory of progressive heart disease, but the favorable effects Stolz reported on cardiovascular function, not just symptoms, support this idea.
Lurz has financial relationships with Edwards Lifesciences, ReCor, and Abbott, which funded the bRIGHT registry. Karam reports financial relationships with Abbott, Edwards Lifesciences, and Medtronic. Stolz reports no potential conflicts of interest, but other coinvestigators of the retrospective analysis have financial relationships with Edwards Lifesciences, which is developing the EVOQUE system.
This story originally appeared on MDedge.com, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
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