Patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation (AF) at the time of mitral transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (M-TEER) for severe mitral regurgitation are more than twice as likely to die or be rehospitalized for heart failure, compared to patients without AF. These are the findings from a Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital study that links the presence of AF at the time of the procedure to worse outcomes following the procedure.
The results, published July 17 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, suggest that AF may have to be treated more aggressively before patients undergo this type of transcatheter procedure in order to improve outcomes.