Impact:

Surgical repair of the mitral valve has been the standard of care for patients with mitral valve regurgitation (leakage). Dang and colleagues led the Endovascular Valve Edge-to-Edge Repair Study (EVEREST), the first clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a minimally invasive alternative to surgery using the MitraClip System (Abbott). In 2013, the FDA approved MitraClip for patients with degenerative mitral regurgitation (a condition caused by an abnormality in the mitral valve) who are not candidates for surgery. Stone is the lead investigator of a more recent study, Cardiovascular Outcomes Assessment of the MitraClip Percutanteous Therapy (COAPT) for Heart Failure Patients with Functional Mitral Regurgitation. This study is looking at the benefit of MitraClip for high-risk patients with mitral regurgitation due to enlargement of the left ventricle.