What evidence do we have to replace in-hospital implantable cardioverter clefibrillator follow-up?

Introduction Due to the increasing number of patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), new options for ICD patient follow-up management are required. Methods Patients with ICD indication according to the guidelines received an ICD with Home Monitoring technology. The devices enabled the transmission of the relevant episode, therapy, and system integrity data. Patients were followed for 12 months with routine controls every 3 months. The physician analyzed the Home Monitoring data before the routine follow-up visit (FU) and gave a forecast on the necessity of the pending FU, which was compared with the evaluation after the FU. Based on the derived forecast reliability, a patient management scheme was developed and its impact on patient safety was assessed retrospectively. Results A total of 271 patients were enrolled (40 f, mean age 62 +/- 12 years, mean LVEF 39 +/- 15%, 65% ischemic heart disease, 20% cardiomyopathy) and followed for 339 +/- 109 days. Of 908 pairs of Home Monitoring data and FU data evaluation, 129 there were false negative results for 92 patients. Safety concerns from false negative forecasts can be minimized with a patient management scheme containing the following elements: 1) never skip the first routine FU; 2) never skip a routine FU for a patient having already shown pacing threshold problems; 3) perform FU following hospitalizations; 4) perform FU following episode detection by the ICD; and 5) perform a routine FU if the patient reports symptoms. The retrospective analysis showed, that if the patients had been managed using this scheme, 503 of 1079 routine FU could have been skipped with only one safety concern, a three month delay in the detection of silent paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in one patient. Conclusions Home Monitoring in ICD therapy over 12 months is feasible. The data transmitted relevantly contribute to a remarkable reduction of follow-up burden and enable the individualization of routine follow-up.