Actual status and future directions of cardiac telerehabilitation.

Telerehabilitation (TR) was developed to achieve the same results as would be achieved by the standard rehabilitation process and to overcome potential geographical barriers and staff deficiencies. This is especially relevant in periodic crisis situations, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Proper execution of TR strategy requires both well-educated staff and dedicated equipment. Various studies have shown that TR may have similar effects to traditional rehabilitation in terms of clinical outcomes and may also reduce total healthcare costs per participant, including rehospitalization costs. However, as with any method, TR has its advantages and disadvantages, including a lack of direct contact or prerequisite, rudimentary ability of the patients to handle mobile devices, among other competencies. Herein, is a discussion of the current status of TR, focusing primarily on cardiac TR, describing some technical/organizational and legal aspects, highlighting the indications, examining cost-effectiveness, as well as outlining possible future directions.

Assessment of ECG during hybrid comprehensive telerehabilitation in heart failure patients-Subanalysis of the Telerehabilitation in Heart Failure Patients (TELEREH-HF) randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Exercise training in heart failure (HF) patients should be monitored to ensure patients' safety. Electrocardiographic (ECG) telemonitoring was used to assess the safety of hybrid comprehensive telerehabilitation (HCTR). OBJECTIVE: Analysis of ECG recorded during HCTR in HF patients. METHODS: The TELEREH-HF multicenter, randomized, controlled trial enrolled 850 HF patients with New York Heart Association class I-III and left ventricular ejection fraction of ≤40%. This subanalysis focuses on 386 patients (aged 62 ± 11 years, LVEF 31 ± 7%) randomized to HCTR. HCTR was telemonitored with a device allowing to record 16-s fragments of ECG and to transmit the data via mobile phone network to the monitoring center. ResultsIn 386 patients, 16,622 HCTR sessions were recorded and 66,488 ECGs fragments were evaluated. Sinus rhythm was present in 320 (83%) and permanent atrial fibrillation (AF) in 66 (17%) patients, respectively. The most common arrhythmias were ventricular and atrial premature beats, recorded in 76.4% and 27.7% of the patients, respectively. Non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (21 episodes in 8 patients) and paroxysmal AF episodes (6 in 4 patients) were rare. None of the analyzed demographic and clinical characteristics was predictive for onset of the new arrhythmias on exercise. CONCLUSION: Telerehabilitation in HF patients was safe without the evidence for symptomatic arrhythmias requiring discontinuation of telerehabilitation. Only one mildly symptomatic paroxysmal AF episode led to the short-term suspension of the training program. The most common arrhythmias were atrial and ventricular premature beats. These arrhythmias did not result in any changes in rehabilitation and therapy regimens.

Prospective comparison of the 5 most popular risk scores in clinical use for unselected patients with acute coronary syndrome.

BACKGROUND: A limited number of studies comparing the main risk scores (RS) for acute coronary syndromes (ACS) have been conducted and there is a limited number of long-term observations of unselected patient cohorts evaluated with the various RS. The aim of this study was to validate 5 RS (TIMI STEMI RS, TIMI NSTEMI/UA RS, GRACE RS, SIMPLE RS and ZWOLLE RS) in a Polish population and to develop a new RS that would specifically predict 1-year mortality in the unselected ACS patient cohort. METHODS AND RESULTS: Single-center ACS registry analysis with 1-year follow-up of 931 patients and prospective comparison of 5 RS was conducted. Creation of an RS was attempted. Risk factors were evaluated in a multivariate logistic regression model. The predictive value of the model was assessed with evaluation of the area under curve (AUC) in receiver-operating characteristic analysis. Twelve independent factors influencing 1-year mortality were identified and of them, clerking, physical findings on admission, first ECG and myocardial necrosis markers demonstrated sufficiently high predictive value. All 5 RS were successfully validated in the target registry and although they all displayed high predictive value, the TIMI RS STEMI (AUC = 0.84) and GRACE RS (AUC = 0.84) proved superior. CONCLUSIONS: The developed Banach score offers both high goodness-of-fit and predictive value and may be used irrespective of ACS type.