Is Aortic Valve Leaflet Morphology Predictive of Outcome in Pediatric Aortic Valve Stenosis?

BACKGROUND: Initial palliative treatment of congenital aortic valve stenosis consists of either surgical commissurotomy or transcatheter balloon valvuloplasty. The basis for selection of primary approach usually is ill defined. It was hypothesized that aortic valve characteristics may be helpful in directing choice of intervention. This study assesses the impact of valve morphology on time to reintervention after catheter- or surgical-based therapy.

METHODS: A retrospective review of preprocedural echocardiographic aortic outflow characteristics was compared with outcomes of primary surgical or balloon valve interventions. Characteristics studied included (1) annular dimension; (2) leaflet number; (3) leaflet excursion; and (4) degree of leaflet coaptation. Patients included those <20 years with a primary diagnosis of aortic stenosis (AS) and no other hemodynamically significant lesions at our institutions from 2000 to 2011. A total of 102 patients were included, 31 classified as having critical and 71 as having noncritical aortic stenosis. Of the patients, 79 were male, and 50 underwent primary catheter intervention. Echo parameters were compared with procedural outcome as defined by death or need for reintervention. Receiver operator curves were utilized to determine the point within each morphologic feature where the greatest difference occurred. This was utilized as the distinguishing point within each the morphologic group. Analysis was conducted separately for critical and noncritical aortic stenosis.

RESULTS: Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated no significant difference in time to reintervention or death whether initial palliation consisted of surgical commissurotomy or balloon valvuloplasty with respect to any of the morphologic characteristics studied.

CONCLUSION: Patients with AS do equally well with surgical commissurotomy or balloon valvuloplasty as initial palliation. This holds true for those with either critical or noncritical aortic stenosis. Valve morphology did not help in selection of initial palliative strategy. Current technologies should enable an improved selection of initial palliative approach through thoughtful, randomized trials.