Transcoronary ablation of septal hypertrophy for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy: feasibility, clinical benefit, and short term results in elderly patients.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate symptomatic and haemodynamic results of transcoronary ablation of septal hypertrophy for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy in elderly patients. SETTING Tertiary referral centre for patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. DESIGN Retrospective study of two groups of consecutive patients divided at a median age (59 years). PATIENTS Transcoronary ablation of septal hypertrophy was compared for 80 patients (group 1) < 60 years of age and 77 patients (group 2) > or = 60 years of age. At baseline both groups were similar concerning the proportion of familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, concomitant moderate hypertension, prior syncope, left ventricular outflow obstruction, left ventricular end diastolic pressure, and left ventricular ejection fraction. Patients in group 2 had a lower interventricular septal thickness and more severe disease as measured by New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class, exercise capacity, pulmonary artery mean pressure at workload, and cardiac index at peak exercise. RESULTS Median follow up was seven months after transcoronary ablation of septal hypertrophy. Both groups had a significant and similar improvement in basal and provokable obstruction, septal thickness, NYHA functional class, exercise tolerance, peak oxygen consumption, and pulmonary artery mean pressure at workload. Significant differences, compared with the younger group, were a higher proportion of persistent total atrioventricular block (5% v 17%, p = 0.015) and a slight decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction (3 (12) v -6 (11)%, p = 0.001) in the elderly, despite a trend to a lower induced peak creatine kinase activity (596 (339) v 491 (331) U/l, p = 0.051). CONCLUSIONS Short term results with transcoronary ablation of septal hypertrophy suggest that independent of a patient's age similar treatment strategies are justified in hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.