PhD defence D. (Dilan) Aydin

Brief summary:

Heart failure represents a great worldwide health issue with high morbidity and mortality, exerting a considerable burden on healthcare systems due to its high incidence of hospitalization. The patient carries a considerable physical and mental burden due to frequent hospitalizations and poor quality of life. The primary approach for heart failure involves pharmacotherapy in accordance with international guidelines, but is often unsatisfactory given the adverse events. Furthermore, maintaining euvolemia under medication remains challenging. The implementation of telemonitoring on top of the pharmacological treatment has been showing benefits on cardiovascular outcomes. The CardioMEMS HF system in particular, shows great potential in decreasing hospitalization and improving quality of life. It allows for the identification of potential upcoming decompensation prior to the clinical manifestation of symptoms. Swiftly recognizing these early signs by monitoring the pulmonary artery pressures and appropriately adjusting the treatment can lead to avoiding hospitalization and consequently this may lead to considerable cost savings. It is therefore interesting to study this technique. Thus, the objective of this dissertation was to research telemonitoring in patients with heart failure and to improve their current pharmacological treatment by further investigating this subject.