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Transcatheter aortic-valve implantation (TAVI) is one of the great recent advances in cardiovascular medicine. However, postprocedure stroke is a hazard of the procedure, perhaps occurring in as many as 10% of patients. Concerns have also been raised about whether silent brain infarcts commonly occur and have long-term clinical sequelae. To describe what is known about silent brain infarcts after TAVI, investigators conducted a systematic literature review and meta-analysis and identified 39 studies involving 2171 people who had a paired diffusion-weighted MRI before and after the TAVI procedure.
Overall, 74% of the patients had a new silent brain infarct, and 5% had a new focal neurological deficit. Having a cerebral embolic protection devi…