Figure 3.

Competing risks. A) Non-cardiovascular (CV) death precludes the possible subsequent events of congestive heart failure (CHF), and heart transplant changes the possibility of CHF occurrence. Therefore, these events are called competing risks. B) Flow chart for analysis. B1. Each group. B2. Patient level assessment. In the Fine-Gray model, patients experiencing competing risk events (e.g., heart transplant) remain in the risk set for the event of interest (e.g., CHF) until either experiencing events of interest or their censoring. B3. Group assessment. From patients at risk and the number of events, the cumulative event rate is calculated. When we compare groups, the result is presented as hazard ratio and p-value. C) Flow chart for analysis. C1. Each group. C2. Patient level assessment. In the case that the competing risk event is a non-CV death, a competing risk event (non-CV death) is treated as a censoring because death is not an event of interest (CHF) and also means the end of follow-up. C3. Group assessment. D) Application of competing risk regression to the sub-analysis of the PARTNER trial. SAVR: surgical aortic valve replacement; TAVR: transcatheter aortic valve replacement