Improvement in exercise capacity and exercise blood pressure response after transcoronary alcohol ablation therapy of septal hypertrophy in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Transcoronary alcohol ablation (TAA) therapy of septal hypertrophy was recently proposed as a therapeutic modality for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC). However, questions remain about the effect of TAA on exercise performance. We performed a time-course analysis of exercise capacity and exercise hemodynamics in 20 patients with symptomatic obstructive HC after TAA. Symptom-limited bicycle exercise testing was performed before and 3 and 12 months after TAA, and cardiac catheterization at 3-month follow-up. The pressure gradient of the left ventricular outflow tract immediately decreased from 58 ± 8 to 4 ± 1 mm Hg at rest (p