Real-time Technical Support Using a Remote Technology During Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device Follow-up: A Preliminary Multicenter Experience in Clinical Practice.

Industry-employed allied professionals (IEAPs) provide technical assistance to physicians during cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) implantation, programming, troubleshooting, and follow-up. The Heart Connect™ application (Boston Scientific Inc., Marlborough, MA, USA) is a data-sharing system that enables remote access and display sharing of the CIED Programmer.

Frequent Home Monitoring of ICD Is Effective to Prevent Inappropriate Defibrillator Shock Delivery.

Recently, in the context of telemedicine, telemonitoring services are gaining attention. They are offered, for example, to patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). A major problem associated with ICD therapy is the occurrence of inappropriate shocks which impair patients' quality of life and may also be arrhythmogenic.

Ablation of paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation with multielectrode phased radiofrequency duty-cycled catheters: long-term results from a large cohort of patients.

Background: Catheter ablation is a widely used approach to treat patients with drug refractory paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) and persistent atrial fibrillation (CAF). The aim of this analysis was to evaluate the long-term safety and efficacy of the multielectrode/phased radiofrequency (RF)/duty-cycled ablation catheters in the treatment of both PAF and CAF in a large cohort of patients.

Methods And Results: From July 2008 to February 2010, 429 consecutive drug refractory symptomatic patients (mean age 60 ± 12 years old, 58% men, 68% PAF, 32% CAF) were treated.