Baseline patient characteristics
| Variable | Patients N=138 |
| Age (years) | 80.2±7.3 |
| Female | 46% (64) |
| Logistic EUROscore | 18.96±10.7 |
| Diabetes | 23% (31) |
| Smoking history | 42% (58) |
| Pulmonary disease | 25% (34) |
| Chronic renal failure on dialysis | 0.7% (1) |
| Cerebrovascular disease | 13% (18) |
| Extracardiac arteriopathy | 15% (20) |
| Previous cardiac surgery | 13% (18) |
| Previous PCI | 8% (11) |
| Poor ejection fraction (<30%) | 8% (11) |
| Aortic valve area (cm2) | 0.71±0.18 |