ECG telemonitoring during home-based cardiac rehabilitation in heart failure patients

We assessed ECGs recorded during home-based telemonitored cardiac rehabilitation (HTCR) in stable patients with heart-failure. The study included 75 patients with heart failure (NYHA II, III), with a mean age of 56 years. They participated in an eight-week programme of home cardiac rehabilitation which was telemonitored with a device which recorded 16-s fragments of their ECG. These fragments were transmitted via mobile phone to a monitoring centre. The times of the automatic ECG recordings were pre-set and coordinated with the cardiac rehabilitation. Patients were able to make additional recordings when they felt unwell using a tele-event-Holter ECG facility. During the study, 5757 HTCR sessions were recorded and 11,534 transmitted ECG fragments were evaluated. Most ECGs originated from the automatic recordings. Singular supraventricular and ventricular premature beats and ventricular couplets were detected in 16%, 69% and 16% of patients, respectively. Twenty ECGs were recorded when patients felt unwell: non sustained ventricular tachycardia occurred in three patients and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation episode in two patients. Heart failure patients undergoing HTCR did not develop any arrhythmia which required a change of the procedure, confirming it was safe. Cardiac rehabilitation at home was improved by utilizing the tele-event-Holter ECG facility.