The Prognostic Nutritional Index in prediction of two-year mortality in patients undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement

Objective: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a minimally invasive procedure employed to treat aortic valve disease in patients who are ineligible for open-heart surgery. Undergoing TAVR patients generally include the elderly and frail. Malnutrition is associated with high morbidity and mortality in patients with undergoing TAVR. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) for two-year survival after TAVR. Material and Methods: A cohort of 213 consecutive patients with severe aortic stenosis who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement between March 2019 and July 2021. The study population was divided into two groups according to the cut-off PNI level in a receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The two-year follow-up results of the patients were recorded retrospectively. PNI was defined according to the following formula: PNI = (10 x serum albumin [g/dl]) + (0.005 x total lymphocyte counts [1000/mcL]). Results: Mean age of the patients was 76.15, and 93 (43.7%) of them were males. Patients with low PNI (group 1) were significantly older. The mean PNI of group 1 was 43.17 ± 4.04 and the mean PNI of group 2 was 54.23 ± 4.30. Mortality at two-year was 32.6% in low PNI group and 10.7% in high PNI group. Hypertension and PNI were independent predictors of mortality after TAVR. In ROC curve analysis, PNI at a cut off value of 48.325 predicted the mortality after TAVR with 63.5% sensitivity and 70.1% specificity. Kaplan-Meier curves for two-year mortality between low and high PNI groups showed worse outcomes in patients with low PNI. Conclusion: PNI is a practical and useful nutritional index that predicts two-year mortality after TAVR.