Hypoalbuminemia, a frailty criterion, belongs to a group of co-morbidities not captured as a traditional risk factor. We assessed its prognostic value in patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). The study included 1,215 consecutive patients from the Optimized Catheter Valvular Intervention -TAVI Japanese multicenter registry. Hypoalbuminemia was defined as serum albumin level <3.5 g/dl. Baseline characteristics, procedural outcomes, and all-cause, cardiovascular and noncardiovascular mortality rates after TAVI were compared between patients with albumin level <3.5 g/dl (hypo[h]-ALB group, n = 284) and those with albumin level >3.5 g/dl (nonhypo[nh]-ALB group, n = 931). Several baseline characteristics differed significantly between both groups, including age (85.1 ± 5.1 vs 84.2 ± 4.9 years, p = 0.012), ejection fraction (58.5 ± 14.3% vs 62.9 ± 12.4%, p <0.001), baseline kidney function, or liver disease. The 30-day mortality rate in all patients showed significant differences between the 2 groups (3.9% vs 1.3%, p = 0.005). During a mean follow-up of 330 days, cumulative all-cause, cardiovascular, and noncardiovascular mortality rates were significantly higher in the hALB group than in the nhALB group (log-rank test, p <0.001, p = 0.0021, and p <0.001, respectively). The groups were also analyzed using a propensity matching model for adjusting the baseline differences. The analysis revealed that the poorer prognosis of the hALB group in terms of cumulative all-cause and noncardiovascular mortality was retained (p = 0.038, and p = 0.0068, respectively); however, differences in cardiovascular mortality rates in the 2 groups were attenuated (p = 0.93). In conclusion, hypoalbuminemia was associated with poor prognosis, highlighted by the increase in noncardiovascular mortality. Baseline albumin level could be a useful marker for risk stratification before TAVI.
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