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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
A major cardiology trial just delivered a breakthrough for tricuspid valve disease. The TRIC-I-HF trial found that transcatheter tricuspid valve repair (TTVR) added to medical therapy slashed the combined risk of death and heart failure hospitalization by 60% compared to medical therapy alone — the first tricuspid trial to show such hard clinical benefits. Experts are calling it a "COAPT-like moment" for the field.
The TRIC-I-HF trial has delivered what many interventional cardiologists have been waiting for: the first randomized evidence that transcatheter tricuspid valve repair (TTVR) can meaningfully reduce death and heart failure (HF) hospitalizations. Presented at the ESC Congress 2026 and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the trial enrolled 360 high-risk patients (mean age 80, 56% women) with severe tricuspid regurgitation across 29 German centers.
Compared to medical therapy alone, TTVR plus medical therapy produced a win ratio of 2.42 for the hierarchical composite of all-cause death, HF hospitalization, and quality-of-life improvement. The survival and hospitalization curves continued to diverge over three years, reinforcing the durability of the benefit. Experts likened the results to the landmark COAPT trial, which transformed transcatheter mitral valve repair.
Prior tricuspid trials (Tri.Fr, TRILUMINATE Pivotal) only showed quality-of-life gains — never hard clinical endpoints. TRIC-I-HF changes that calculus entirely, potentially reshaping guidelines and expanding access to TTVR for the growing population of patients with severe, symptomatic tricuspid regurgitation.
