Department of Cardiology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
J Telemed Telecare. 2010;16(7):403-8. doi: 10.1258/jtt.2010.090810. Epub 2010 Sep 24.
We examined the costs and safety of follow-up of patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). In a prospective study, a remote monitoring system was used to interrogate ICD devices via telephone. Twenty patients with an ICD were followed up conventionally (clinic visits) or remotely at 1, 3 and 6 months after implantation of the ICD. A total of 30 transmissions of ICD data were made via the remote monitoring system. Five transmissions (17%) were interrupted, mainly due to a loss of telemetry, but no data were lost. The duration of the remote follow-up was 12.7 min less than follow-up in clinic (25.8 min, P < 0.05). Five of the remote follow-up transmissions concerned arrhythmia episodes. These lasted significantly longer than those without arrhythmia (16.6 vs. 4.9 min, P < 0.05). In three patients an unscheduled visit to the outpatient clinic was necessary. The cost of remote follow-up for 100 ICD patients/year was calculated to be €44,267, or about 16% of the cost of conventional in-clinic follow-up.
我们研究了植入式心脏复律除颤器（ICD）患者随访的成本和安全性。在一项前瞻性研究中，使用远程监测系统通过电话询问 ICD 设备。20 例植入 ICD 的患者在植入后 1、3 和 6 个月分别接受常规（门诊就诊）或远程随访。通过远程监测系统共进行了 30 次 ICD 数据传输。有 5 次（17%）传输中断，主要是由于遥测丢失，但没有数据丢失。远程随访的持续时间比门诊随访少 12.7 分钟（25.8 分钟，P <0.05）。远程随访中有 5 次传输涉及心律失常发作。这些发作持续时间明显长于无心律失常发作（16.6 分钟 vs. 4.9 分钟，P <0.05）。有 3 名患者需要到门诊就诊。100 例 ICD 患者/年的远程随访费用计算为 44267 欧元，约为常规门诊随访费用的 16%。
