Percutaneous treatments of heart valve disease

During the last decade, there has been a rapid increase in the use of MitraClip implantation and TAVI worldwide. Both percutaneous techniques are valuable therapies when the conventional surgery is not an option due to high surgical risk. Both techniques have been shown to be effective and safe treatment options in this high-risk patient population. For this reason, these techniques have been included in the current valvular guidelines. Several studies have reported acceptable mid-term survival rates while complication rates are low. More studies were needed in order to further improve the safety and efficacy by obtaining a better insight in which patients would benefit most from these therapies. Furthermore we wanted to improve selection criteria and study the effect of these techniques on left- and right ventricular function and inflow patterns and related these to the symptomatic status of the patients.