Sample
Inclusion criteria were age (>18 years) and having an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD), a subcutaneous ICD (S-ICD), or cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D). All patients were enrolled in different remote monitoring systems, according to manufacturer technology, which allows physicians to access on a secured web site to patients’ data. Patients were considered eligible for analysis if available device stored data covered at least 1 months within the study period. Data from the remote-monitoring system were deidentified before analysis. Patient population was characterized using demographic data including age, gender, device model, reason for implantation, previous history of anti-tachycardia therapy (shocks or ATP), anti-tachycardia programming. Among 839 patients with an implanted cardiac device followed up with remote monitoring at the enrolling Institution on April 5th 2020, 563 had ICD, S-ICD or CRT-D. We excluded 26 patients due to: limited follow-up during study timeframe (21 patients), unavailable data at remote monitoring (5 patients) or implantation after the study period (77 patients, see Figure 1). The final cohort consisted of 455 patients.
The study was approved by the institutional review board at the enrolling Institution. Every participant gave informed consent for such analysis during hospitalization for device implant or replacement.
— Figure 1 —