CONGRESS ABSTRACT

Background Nowadays a wearable cardioverter defibrillator  (WCD) is reccomended in current guidelines in patients with transient risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). A crucial factor for the effectiveness of the WCD is adequate patient compliance. In literature patients  wore WCD with different  wearing time between first randomized trial and  registries. Methods We evaluated the  adherence to WCD in   consecutively  patients discharged from our cardiology department for potentially  transient high risk of SCD, that wore the WCD from August  2017 to June  2024 after  a systematic  education session lasting 30 – 45 minutes.  . They were followed through remote monitoring. Furthermore we have retrospectively administered a  questionnaire of perceived  health status used in France Wearit II registry Results Out of 116 patients recruited , with average age 65,8 ±11,1 years old and baseline average left ventricular ejection fraction  (LVEF) 29,9±8,9,76,7% were males and 61% of these patients wore WCD for severe systolic disfunction in ischemic cardiac disease  ,4% after removal of an infected ICD,  35% after newly diagnosed  cardiomyopathy.The median daily WCD  wear time was 60,5 days ±42,5 and 22,9±2,6 hours daily. No sex difference were found  both in days  (males 60±39 vs females  60±39 , p=0,5 ) than in hours ( m 23±1,5 vs f 22,45±4,9)Few  patients  ( only 4% ) wore the WCD for < 20 h per day . In univariate analysis age was lower  but not significativly(median  Age < 20 h  53,2±14,2 vs > 20 h 66,3±10,7, p=0,05)Regarding  questionnaire the two  items that patients most agreed with Were :”the WCD gives me pace of mind “ and “ I follow lifestyle modification  reccomandation fraom physicians with respectively  71% and 70% patients  responding  “ Strongly agree “ or “ agree”. Conclusions In our experience after  adequate training the patient  adherence  in wearing WCD is almost optimal as in European registries. Furthermore the use of WCD was generally positively associated with health and lifestyle benefits