Czech TAVI Registry—rationale and design

Aortic stenosis is the most common type of valve disease in the adults. Until recently its treatment was an exclusive domain of cardiac surgery. At the same time the aortic valve replacement (SAVR) was not indicated in about 1/3 of the patients, though the prognosis of conservatively treated patients is very unfavourable with one-year mortality rate of 50%. These facts were the main reasons for starting a new interventional era of the aortic valve disease therapy in 2002 and from 2007 two types of valves fixed in stents have been commercially available.In the early phase the transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) was used just in patients with contraindication to SAVR or with high perioperative risk after surgery. Before applying this therapy to less risky patients some problems have to be solved: 1. clinical impact of the relatively high rate of paravalvular leaks and 2. long-term function of the implanted valve in follow-up exceeding 5 years.In the Czech Republic the first TAVI was performed in Prague, IKEM in December 2008. During a short period of time the TAVI programme was initiated also in other complex cardiovascular centres in Hradec Kralove, Brno, Prague—FN Kralovske Vinohrady and Trinec. Including the later starting centres (Usti n. Labem, Olomouc, Ceske Budejovice and other three centres in Prague—Nemocnice na Homolce, FN Motol and VFN) there is a total of 11 centres providing the TAVI at present. All centres except one (FN Motol) are part of the Czech TAVI Registry that was developed with the support of the Czech Society of Cardiology and started on 1 September, 2010. In general and more theoretically there are two parts of the Registry: 1. “Retrospective” including all the TAVI procedures from the beginning of the TAVI programme in the Czech Republic that was terminated on June 30, 2011 and 2. “Prospective” that has been following. Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses of Masaryk University takes care of the online and anonymized database.The results of the national Czech TAVI Registry should help to answer the clinical relevant questions mentioned above.