A study published in the renowned New England Journal of Medicine shows that that overall mortality and the development of strokes after minimally invasive catheter-assisted treatment of aortic valve stenosis (TAVI) is about half that of surgical aortic valve replacement. The pioneering study was supported by the Kuehne Foundation and funded by the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK).

Principal investigator Prof. Dr. Stefan Blankenberg, Medical Director of the University Heart and Vascular Centre and scientific advisor to the Kuehne Foundation's Davos Cardiology Research Centre (Cardio-CARE):

"After analyzing the one-year data, we were able to show that catheter-based intervention is comparable to surgical valve replacement. To do this, we looked at overall mortality and strokes after the procedure as key criteria in the two patient groups. The results were so surprisingly clear that they will strongly influence the treatment of aortic valve stenosis in the future, even in younger patients and those with a low surgical risk".

A total of 38 German heart centers are participating in the DEDICATE-DZHK6 study, which is being led by the University Heart and Vascular Center at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). The trial design was developed under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler, Scientific Director of the Davos Research Center for Cardiology of the Kuehne Foundation (Cardio-CARE).

Further information about the Study on the website of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (in German) and of the New England Journal of Medicine.