Effects of COVID‐19 lockdown on arrhythmias in patients with implantable cardioverter‐defibrillators in southern Italy

Background The effects of lockdown on non‐COVID patients are varied and unexpected. The aim is to evaluate the burden of cardiac arrhythmias during a lockdown period because of COVID‐19 pandemics in a population implanted with cardiac defibrillators and followed by remote monitoring. Methods In this retrospective, multicentre cohort study, we included 574 remotely monitored implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and cardiac resynchronization therapy‐defibrillator (CRT‐D) recipients implanted before January 1, 2019, at seven hospitals in the Campania region, comparing the burden of arrhythmias occurred during the lockdown period because of COVID‐19 epidemics (from March 9 to May 1, 2020) with the arrhythmias burden of the corresponding period in 2019 (reference period). Data collection was performed through remote monitoring. Results During the lockdown period, we observed ventricular tachyarrhythmias (ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation) in 25 (4.8%) patients while in seasonal reference period we documented ventricular tachyarrhythmias in 12 (2.3%) patients; the comparison between the periods is statistically significant (P