3.4 Late Outcomes
During the follow-up period, 40 patients died, indicating a 5-year overall survival rate of 74.2% at 5 years. Of the late mortality cases, 15 patients belonged to the PPM group and 25 to the non-PPM group.
Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the 5-year overall survival rate was 51.5% in the PPM group and 74.8% in the non-PPM group (p = .034, Figure 1A). The causes of death in the PPM group included heart failure (7 patients), cerebrovascular events (2 patients), malignancy (1 patient), unknown (2 patients), and others including pneumonia, renal failure, and superior mesenteric artery embolism (3 patients), whereas the causes in the non-PPM group included heart failure (2 patients), cerebrovascular events (3 patients), malignancy (1 patient), unknown (12 patients) and others including acute myocardial infarction, PVE, pneumonia, renal failure, respiratory failure (7 patients). The incidence of death from heart failure was significantly higher in the PPM group than the non-PPM group (PPM: 20.6%, non-PPM: 2.1%, p= .001), and Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the 5-year freedom from death from heart failure rate was 72.9% in the PPM group and 97.3% in the non-PPM group (p < .001, Figure 1B)
Valve-related events at follow-up occurred in 13 patients (10.2%). These included structural valve deterioration (1 patient), nonstructural dysfunction (2 patients), embolism (6 patients), bleeding (2 patients), and PVE (2 patients) without intergroup differences (p = .75).