Background
Heart failure is a common chronic condition in which the heart cannot pump blood as effectively as the body needs. Many patients with heart failure also develop abnormal heart rhythms, called arrhythmias. These can range from atrial fibrillation, which causes the upper chambers of the heart to beat irregularly, to bradyarrhythmias, which are abnormally slow rhythms, and ventricular tachyarrhythmias, which can be dangerous and sometimes life-threatening.
In everyday clinical practice, arrhythmias may go unnoticed unless they cause symptoms or are captured on an electrocardiogram. That means the true burden of arrhythmia in patients with heart failure has often been underestimated, especially in ambulatory patients who are not hospitalized and who do not already have a cardiac implantable electronic device such as a pacemaker or defibrillator. Another open question has been whether device-guided remote congestion management, which is designed to help clinicians detect worsening fluid overload earlier, changes the frequency of arrhythmias.
