This is a prospective, multicenter, randomized, single-blinded design trial including patients with surgical aortic bioprosthetic dysfunction in the presence of a stented surgical bioprosthesis with a labeled size ≤25 mm. Following the Heart Team's decision to proceed with a ViV-TAVR procedure with the SAPIEN 3 ULTRA valve (or its subsequent iterations), patients will be randomized to valve hemodynamic optimization according to Doppler-echocardiography versus cardiac catheterization parameters.
Data on valve performance following ViV-TAVR has usually been obtained with the use of Doppler-echocardiography. However, some reports have shown significant discordances in the evaluation of mean transvalvular gradient between echocardiography and catheterization, with an overestimation of the real gradient with echo (vs. cath) in most cases. Thus, the incidence of procedural-device failure may be lower than that reported in the ViV-TAVR literature,