Late Breaking Abstract - Clinical effects of Telemonitoring (TM) of patients treated with home non-invasive ventilation (HNIV)

TM seems to be an ideal tool to improve the quality of care for the growing number of HNIV patients. However, the organization of such care and clinical outcomes still need to be discovered. Multicenter, observational, prospective study. Two groups of patients were eligible: group 1: HNIV > 6 months and group 2 - starting HNIV. Trained staff analyzed ventilation quality alerts daily and intervened according to a formal protocol. Alerts’ thresholds were set individually for each patient. Patients were clinically assessed before TM initiation and every 3 months by arterial blood gas analysis, overnight pulse oximetry, SRI, S3-NIV and CAT questionnaires. 152 patients were enrolled: 106 in group 1 and 46 (43%) in group 2; mean age 64,5-year-old (range 28-92): 77 (51%) COPD, 26 (17%) restrictive disorders, 27 (18%) OHS, 21 (14%) NMD. A 6-month follow-up was completed in 130 patients (86%). We found the following significant changes: improvement in compliance in both groups by 38,4 and 35,4 minutes, respectively; reduction in leaks in group 1 during the first month from 12,4±16 l/min to 8,5±10 l/min; reduction in AHI in group 2 over the whole period from 5,2±6,2 to 2,8±2,8. We found significant improvement in gas exchange in group 2. Mean pCO2 decreased by 6.6 mmHg, and pO2 increased by 5.9 mmHg. Mean T90 was significantly reduced by 6.2% in Group 1. The biggest improvement was noted in COPD patients. Significant changes in questionnaires: CAT decreased by 2.3 in Group 2; S3-NIV increased by 0.6 in Group 1; and SRI improved by 3 in Group 1 and by 7 in Group 2. Our results suggest that TM may improve the quality of HNIV, physiological parameters of gas exchange and quality of life.