Efficacy and safety of cardiac tele-rehabilitation in patients after transcatheter aortic valve implantation: a feasibility study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND There are no reports regarding the efficacy of home-based cardiac tele-rehabilitation (hbTR) or its efficacy in comparison to standard cardiac rehabilitation (CR) in patients who have undergone transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). OBJECTIVE We aimed to investigate the efficacy of hbTR in patients who had undergone TAVI. METHODS This single-center, prospective study introduced hbTR to post-TAVI patients and the efficacy outcomes of the rehabilitation method were compared to a historical control cohort. Patients who underwent TAVI before hospital discharge were included. In the first two weeks after TAVI, patients underwent outpatient CR and were trained using tele-rehabilitation systems. Thereafter, patients underwent hbTR twice a week for 12 weeks. The control group, comprising six patients, performed standard outpatient CR at least once a week for 12–16 weeks. Efficacy was assessed using peak oxygen uptake (peak VO2) prior to and after CR. RESULTS Eleven patients were included in the hbTR group. All patients underwent 24 hbTR sessions during the 12-week training period, and no adverse events were observed. The mean age of the hbTR and control groups was 80.4±6.0 and 79.0±3.9 years, respectively. In the hbTR group, pre- and post-peak VO2 were 12.0±1.7 mL/min/kg and 14.3±2.7 mL/min/kg (P=.03), respectively. Peak VO2 changes in the hbTR and control groups were 2.4±1.4 mL/min/kg and 1.3±5.0 mL/min/kg (P=.64), respectively. CONCLUSIONS Home-based cardiac tele-rehabilitation is a safe outpatient rehabilitation method. Its efficacy is not inferior to that of standard cardiac rehabilitation in patients who have undergone TAVI.