Background: telemedicine has emerged as a crucial tool in managing patients with Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices (CIED), addressing the common challenge of the Atrial Fibrillation (AF) in cardiology. The incidence of AF in CIED recipients varies widely (30-70%), influenced by implant indication, device type, and population characteristics. This study aims to evaluate AF in an unselected, real-world CIED population, considering patients’ characteristics and the remote follow-up.
Methods and results: 808 consecutive CIED recipients were evaluated between 2021 and 2023 in two Italian Division of Cardiology by collecting patients’ baseline characteristics and the scheduled remote follow-up data. Mean age was 75.6±12.6 years, 42% were females. 16.7% of the population was working actively and 73% of individuals were assisted by at least one caregiver, reflecting a diminished quality of life (EQ-5D score 8.9±4.3). Over a median follow-up of 20.6 months, 8.9% of patients died. 68.8% of the patients received a pacemaker, 19.3% an ICD and 11.9% a loop recorder. History of AF was present in 40.1% of the population, with a prevalence of permanent AF (46.6%). Ongoing anticoagulant therapy was documented in 303 patients (37.5%), 71% of whom were taking direct oral anticoagulants. Baseline CHA2DS2-VASC score was ≥3 in 79.7%, and the median HAS-BLED score was 1. During the observation period, scheduled remote transmissions revealed 719 AF episodes (15.7 episodes/patient/year), causing 21% of the overall remote alarms. Among patients without AF history, 69 (14.3%) experienced AF episodes (4.8 episodes/patient/year). Notably, 21.8% of the AF episodes lasted less than 10 minutes.
Conclusions: the wide spreading of heart rhythm monitoring technologies reveals the challenge of the subclinical AF in healthcare systems. This study, encompassing an unselected CIED population of elderly and frail patients with high AF prevalence, highlights AF as a primary cause of remote alerts and a substantial burden in telemonitoring controls. Telemedicine facilitated new AF diagnoses in 14.3% of individuals without a prior AF history and resulted a valuable tool considering the significant cardioembolic risk in these patients. However, the initiation of anticoagulation therapy remains debatable, especially for episodes of brief duration which in our experience exceeded 20% of the cases.