Aortoiliofemoral assessment: MRA

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is an undergoing evaluation for the treatment of inoperable or high-risk severe aortic stenosis (AS) patients. Patients with symptomatic, severe AS are at high risk for conventional surgical aortic valve replacement procedures. One of the alternate ways of managing these patients is through TAVR. Several studies on post TAVR patients with a follow-up interval up to 2 years showed significant clinical benefit, improvements in exercise capacity and in quality of life. Proper patient selection is key to optimize successful clinical outcomes. A number of imaging modalities are available for patient screening. One of them is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI provides morphological information, functional status, pre-operative planning and thus plays a role in selection of patients. It is ideally suited for patients with renal insufficiency as evaluation could be done without contrast administration. MRI may prove to be a useful alternative for TAVR evaluation and is particularly beneficial to patients with underlying chronic kidney disease.