Evaluation of a New Telemedicine System for Early Detection of Cardiac Instability in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure: Real-Life Out-of-Hospital Study.

Background: For a decade, despite results from many studies, telemedicine systems have suffered from a lack of recommendations for chronic heart failure (CHF) care because of variable study results. Another limitation is the hospital-based architecture of most telemedicine systems. Some systems use an algorithm based on daily weight, transcutaneous oxygen measurement, and heart rate to detect and treat acute heart failure (AHF) in patients with CHF as early on as possible.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the efficacy of a telemonitoring system in detecting clinical destabilization in real-life settings (out-of-hospital management) without generating too many false positive alerts.

Methods: All patients self-monitoring at home using the system after a congestive AHF event treated at a cardiology clinic in France between March 2020 and March 2021 with at least 75% compliance on daily measurements were included retrospectively. New-onset AHF was defined by the presence of at least 1 of the following criteria: transcutaneous oxygen saturation loss, defined as a transcutaneous oxygen measurement under 90%; rise of cardiac frequency above 110 beats per minute; weight gain of at least 2 kg; and symptoms of congestive AHF, described over the phone. An AHF alert was generated when the criteria reached our definition of new-onset acute congestive heart failure (HF).

Results: A total of 111 consecutive patients (n=70 men) with a median age of 76.60 (IQR 69.5-83.4) years receiving the telemonitoring system were included. Thirty-nine patients (35.1%) reached the HF warning level, and 28 patients (25%) had confirmed HF destabilization during follow-up. No patient had AHF without being detected by the telemonitoring system. Among incorrect AHF alerts (n=11), 5 patients (45%) had taken inaccurate measurements, 3 patients (27%) had supraventricular arrhythmia, 1 patient (9%) had a pulmonary bacterial infection, and 1 patient (9%) contracted COVID-19. A weight gain of at least 2 kg within 4 days was significantly associated with a correct AHF alert (P=.004), and a heart rate of more than 110 beats per minute was more significantly associated with an incorrect AHF alert (P=.007).

Conclusions: This single-center study highlighted the efficacy of the telemedicine system in detecting and quickly treating cardiac instability complicating the course of CHF by detecting new-onset AHF as well as supraventricular arrhythmia, thus helping cardiologists provide better follow-up to ambulatory patients.