Cerebral autoregulation in transcatheter aortic valve implantation patients

In patients suffering from severe aortic stenosis, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) could modify cerebrovascular control. Little is known about cerebral autoregulation (CA) before and after TAVI. In 11 patients (age: 78 ±6 yrs, 3 females, 8 males) scheduled for TAVI, we assessed CA indexes from spontaneous variations of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and mean cerebral blood velocity (MCBv) such as the transfer function gain and phase, squared coherence and autoregulation index (ARI). Markers were computed before (PRE) and within 7 days after (POST) TAVI at supine resting (REST) and during active standing (STAND). None of the time and frequency domain indexes varied across time points and experimental conditions, even though a tendency towards an amelioration of cerebrovascular control was visible after TAVI. Our preliminary data indicate that TAVI has no impact on CA, but they suggest enlarging the population to check whether some tendencies could be confirmed.