Tricuspid repair more than doubled three-year survival without a heart failure admission
The TRIC-I-HF work presented in Munich compared catheter valve repair with drug treatment alone in 360 people with severe tricuspid regurgitation. Most enrolled carried advanced heart failure, and survival without a heart failure admission rose markedly over three years after repair. The finding adds a new option where evidence on death and admissions had long been missing in right-heart leakage.
Science··Evening
A 360-person comparison in severe leakage
A leaking tricuspid valve lets blood run backwards on the right side of the heart, and drugs do little to stop it. The TRIC-I-HF study enrolled 360 people with severe tricuspid regurgitation; all those enrolled were on stable medical therapy and had a hospitalisation for heart failure in the previous year or a cardio-renal or cardio-hepatic syndrome. The mean age was 80.3 years, 56.4 per cent were women and 75 per cent had New York Heart Association class III or IV heart failure. The comparison presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Munich weighed transcatheter repair alongside drug treatment against drug treatment alone.[2], [1]
Survival and admissions diverged over three years
At one year the repaired group came out ahead on a combined measure of death, heart failure hospitalisation and quality of life. At three years 52.4 per cent of repaired people were alive and had avoided a heart failure admission, against 21.0 per cent of those on drugs alone. Until now the procedure had been shown to reduce leakage and improve symptoms, while its effect on hospital admissions and death stayed unsettled. The presentation stresses that repair fills that gap. The work was presented at the Munich congress and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.[1]
A new treatment line in right-heart leakage
The advanced age and severe heart failure profile reflect how this leakage mostly appears in later life. The presentation stresses a results line that moves beyond the symptom relief debate that has dominated right-heart leakage for years. The three-year comparison shows higher survival and fewer heart failure admissions in the repair arm. That will push clinicians to weigh return-to-hospital risk alongside breathlessness or fatigue when choosing care. Treatment options in right-heart valve disease stayed narrow for years; the congress readout opens a new line of debate in that field.[2], [1]
