Kimura N, Nomura Y, Aomatsu A, et al. - Researchers evaluated immune response post-transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) vs post-surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in this 2-part study. For cases of aortic stenosis managed with SAVR (128 patients; age ≥ 80 [mean 82] years) or transfemoral TAVI (102 patients; age ≥80 [mean 86] years), laboratory data collected prior to, immediately after, and 24 and 48 hours after these procedures were evaluated. At 3 time points, normalized levels of 71 cytokines were measured, and findings revealed a significant difference in 23 cytokines. Three hierarchical clusters of differentially expressed cytokines were defined as follows: cluster A (high rise post-SAVR and suppressed rise post-TAVI only immediately post-surgery [CCL2, CCL4, 2 others]), cluster B (high rise post-SAVR and suppressed increment post-TAVI at 2 time points [IL-1Ra, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, 5 others]), and cluster C (various patterns [TRAIL, CCL11, 8 others]). Overall, findings demonstrated that SAVR and TAVI were followed by a robust inflammatory response and a comparatively attenuated response, respectively.