Comparison of the groups:
Concerning baseline echocardiography, we found higher MG in group 2 (1.5±1 mmHg vs 2.6±1.1mmHg, p=0.001), as expected. However, the MV geometry war comparable the groups – baseline AP-diameter (37.3± 0.5 mm vs 37.5± 0.5 mm, p=0.9) and baseline SL-diameter (39.9±6.9 mm vs 39.2±5.9 mm, p=0.9). The remaining baseline echocardiographic parameters were statistically comparable between the groups. Of note, there were no significant differences concerning the aetiology of MR between the groups (Table 2) .
At six-month FU in survived patients (n=160), the NYHA functional class was found to be significantly improved in group 1 (NYHA >II; 100% to 26%, p<0.001), but not in group 2 (NYHA >II; 100% to 73%, p=0.5). We, furthermore, found an increased walk distance (6MWT) in group 1 (252.2 ±127.8 m to 348.3±80.7 m, p=0.05), but this value was unchanged in group 2 (210.8±46.5 m to 223.3±25.8 m, p=0.3). Serum levels of NT-proBNP tended to decrease in group 1 and increase in group 2 at six-month FU (5043.4±4039.1 pg/dl to 4145.9±3352.1 pg/dl, p=0.3 vs. 5389.5±1068.4 pg/dl to 9121.5±8864.8 pg/dl, p=0.6) (Table 3).
We found a significant and sustained reduction in MR severity in both groups six months after the procedure (MR ≥III; 91% to 2%, p<0.001, 94% to 6%, p<0.001). RVSP significantly decreased only in group 1 (44.6±11.3 mmHg to 33.3±4.2 mmHg, p=0.016). Patients with an intraprocedural MG ≥4.5 mmHg showed no significant RVSP changes (49.4±18.3 mmHg to 45.6±18.7 mmHg, p=0.5) at FU(Table 3) .