The second official report from Japanese registry for mechanical assisted circulatory support (J-MACS): first results of bridge to bridge strategy

Background: The Japanese registry for mechanical assisted circulatory support (J-MACS) is a prospective registry to collect all data of implantable left ventricular assist device (LVAD) (and part of paracorporeal VAD) established in 2010. The first analytical report was published in 2017. The organization running J-MACS was used to be the pharmaceuticals and medical devices agency (PMDA), but has been changed to the council for clinical use of ventricular assist device related academic societies in 2017. Methods: Since 2018, we changed the analytical methods as follows: first, we eliminated paracorporeal VAD from the analysis. Second, we included not only primary implantation but bridge to bridge (BTB) implantation of LVAD. Third, we added the analyses of adverse events that were not included in the previous analysis. Results: As of Oct 2018, 711 primary LVAD implants and 168 BTB implants were enrolled. Survival rate of primary LVAD was 93% at 360 days and 91% at 720 days, and that of BTB was 86% at 360 days and 82% at 720 days. Conclusion: We first reported the results of BTB in the second official report of J-MACS. The prognosis after LVAD implantation has been kept good in Japanese circumstances.