AHA Scientific Sessions 2026 AbstractNov 7, 2026, 00:54 GMT

Renin-angiotensin system inhibitors linked to fewer deaths

After catheter-based aortic valve replacement, deaths occurred in 21.9% of people prescribed the drugs versus 27.4% of non-users over a median follow-up of 713 days.

Paper by Hritvik Jain, Muhammad Rafay Shahzad Cheema, Jyoti Jain, +5Andrew Michael Goldsweig · All India Institute of Medical Sciences Jodhpur · Baystate Medical Center

A replacement aortic valve sits between blue-green figures beside a molecule and gray figures with more white silhouettes among them.

Our read

Interventions

Studied:: Cohort study of 54,020 TAVR recipients, median 713 days, against non-users
What changed:: All-cause mortality was lower with RASi: 21.9% against 27.4% in non-users (hazard ratio 0.74)
The catch:: 86.1% of the patients were White in a US health-record network
In the record:: The 35th paper on renin-angiotensin system inhibitors with results in people; 117 on record in all. Its result on mortality agrees with all 12 other findings on record.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper

The 54,020 patients in a US health-record network underwent aortic valve replacement through a catheter, a thin tube. Their mean age was 78.2 years; 56.9% were male and 86.1% were White. In this retrospective observational study, researchers matched people prescribed renin-angiotensin system inhibitors—drugs that block a hormone system regulating blood pressure—with non-users on recorded health and other characteristics.

Over a median follow-up of 713 days, 21.9% of users and 27.4% of non-users died. Rehospitalization occurred in 59.7% and 67.6%, respectively. Neither sudden kidney injury nor stroke showed a meaningful increase. Hazard ratios, which compare event rates over time, were 0.960 for kidney injury and 0.974 for stroke in users versus non-users. The range of likely stroke effects included no difference.

Why it matters

Persistent heart muscle thickening after aortic valve replacement contributes to long-term mortality. The authors called for a large randomized trial to test starting these drugs after the procedure.

Caveats

Matching could not rule out unrecorded differences in health or care that affected both prescribing and survival. The findings were reported in a conference abstract, not a randomized trial.