Selecting patients for transcatheter aortic valve implantation

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a feasible therapeutic alternative for patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis who are considered high risk for surgical aortic valve replacement. The clinical results of TAVI are promising, with over 90% procedural success rates and superior 1-year survival, as compared with medical treatment. Appropriate selection of patients is crucial to optimize procedural success and to minimize the complication rate. A careful multidisciplinary evaluation of clinical symptoms and assessment of aortic valve annular size and dimensions of the peripheral arteries is mandatory to plan the TAVI strategy. Multimodality imaging plays a central role in the preprocedural evaluation of patients who are candidates for TAVI. Patient selection procedure and planning strategy for TAVI will be extensively discussed in the present article. © 2011 Future Medicine Ltd.