Clinical Support through Telemedicine in Heart Failure Outpatients during the COVID-19 Pandemic Period: Results of a 12-Months Follow Up.

Background: Heart failure (HF) patients are predisposed to recurrences and disease destabilizations, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak period. In this scenario, telemedicine could be a proper way to ensure continuous care. The purpose of the study was to compare two modalities of HF outpatients' follow up, the traditional in-person visits and telephone consultations, during the COVID-19 pandemic period in Italy.

Methods: We conducted an observational study on consecutive HF outpatients. The follow up period was 12 months, starting from the beginning of the COVID-19 Italy lockdown. According to the follow up modality, and after the propensity matching score, patients were divided into two groups: those in G1 ( = 92) were managed with traditional in-person visits and those in G2 ( = 92) were managed with telephone consultation. Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were the primary endpoints. Secondary endpoints were overall mortality, cardiovascular death, cardiovascular hospitalization, and hospitalization due to HF.

Results: No significant differences between G1 and G2 have been observed regarding MACE ( = 0.65), cardiovascular death ( = 0.39), overall mortality ( = 0.85), hospitalization due to acute HF ( = 0.07), and cardiovascular hospitalization ( = 0.4). Survival analysis performed by the Kaplan-Meier method also did not show significant differences between G1 and G2.

Conclusions: Telephone consultations represented a valid option to manage HF outpatients during COVID-19 pandemic, comparable to traditional in-person visits.