Management of chronic heart failure: Role of home echocardiography in monitoring care programs.

Aim: To identify a possible role of home echocardiography for monitoring chronic heart failure (CHF) patients.

Methods: We prospectively investigated 118 patients hospitalized during the last year for CHF who could not easily reach the pertaining District Healthcare Center. The patients were followed up with 2 home management programs: one including clinical and electrocardiographic evaluations and also periodic home echocardiographic examinations (group A), the other including clinical and electrocardiographic evaluations only (group B).