Fig. 4.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical autonomic research in Europe (A), including cumulative trial recruitment stop duration (B). Centers reporting trial recruitment stops for more than 6 months had a significantly lower number of autonomic outpatient visits during the first pandemic year [48 (25; 123) versus 125 (85; 274), p = 0.045] compared with those whose trial recruitment stops lasted 6 months or less. Survey respondents, who amended their study protocols for telemedicine had a significantly higher number of TTT both in pre-pandemic years [250 (50; 400) versus 100 (47; 195), p = 0.015] and during the first pandemic year (194 ± 219 versus 63 ± 72, p = 0.039), as well as higher numbers of autonomic inpatient admissions during the first pandemic year [28 (9; 96) versus 5 (0; 24), p = 0.022] compared with those who did not implement telemedicine in their research protocols