Effective percutaneous "edge-to-edge" mitral valve repair with mitraclip in a patient with acute post-MI regurgitation not related to papillary muscle rupture.

A 65-year-old woman was admitted to our institution for rest dyspnea and hypotension. EKG showed sinus tachycardia with signs of infero-posterior STEMI. 2D-echocardiogram showed severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction with a- diskynesia of the inferior and posterior walls and severe functional mitral regurgitation (MR). The patient underwent urgent coronary angiography that showed 3-vessels disease with total occlusion of both first obtuse marginal (OM) branch of the left circumflex artery and right coronary artery (RCA) and critical stenosis of left anterior descending (LAD). Because of extremely high surgical risk, we performed a staged totally percoutaneous approach. First, we reopened the presumed culprit vessels (RCA and OM) and then, after 48 hr, we performed angioplasty of the LAD. Since revascularization provided no significant improvement in respiratory and hemodynamic parameters we performed a percutaneous mitral repair with Mitraclip. MR grade was reduced from severe to trivial with rapid improvement of the respiratory and hemodynamic parameters. The post-procedural course was uneventful and the patient was discharged 7 days later. At the 30-day and 6-month follow-up the patient remained asymptomatic in NYHA I functional class with no recurrence of MR. Acute MR due to post-AMI mechanical complications is generally considered a contraindication to MitraClip implantation for several reasons. However, the present report shows that, in selected cases, the Mitraclip system may be successfully used to reduce the severity of acute MR secondary to AMI and may allow to reverse cardiogenic shock and/or refractory pulmonary congestion related to the acute regurgitation.