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Apple Watches prove useful in screening for AFib, studies find

MacDailyNews

Jan 30

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Recent research highlights the effectiveness of Apple Watch in screening for atrial fibrillation (AFib), a prevalent heart rhythm disorder that substantially increases stroke risk.

Two studies published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology demonstrate the device’s value in detecting AFib, which is often challenging to diagnose due to its intermittent and sometimes asymptomatic nature.

Apple Watch models equipped for AFib screening use two methods: passive monitoring of the wearer’s pulse via an optical sensor (photoplethysmography) for irregular rhythms, or an on-demand single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) obtained by placing a finger on the digital crown.

Reuters:
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For one of the studies, opens new tab, researchers in The Netherlands enrolled 437 adults at high risk for stroke and randomly assigned half of them to wear an Apple watch, paired with their smartphone, for six months. Everyone also received standard medical care.
Patients were asked to wear the watch for at least 12 hours a day and to record a one-lead ECG whenever they felt an irregular heartbeat. All ECGs were reviewed within 24 hours by a telemonitoring clinician.
At six months, new cases of AFib had been detected in 9.6% of the watch-wearing group. Most of the episodes had not produced any symptoms. This indicates that without monitoring by the watch, patients would not have realized their heart rhythms were irregular.
In the control group, 2.3% of patients were found to have AFib. All of those patients had felt the irregularity and reported it to their doctors.
The higher proportion of silent intermittent cases “likely reflect the ability of smartwatch monitoring to capture brief, self-terminating episodes that symptom-based approaches may miss,” the researchers said.

MacDailyNews Take: Get insights into your health, including notifications if you have an irregular heart rhythm, with an Apple Watch SE 2 starting at just $249.99.
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MacDailyNews Note: Read about the second study in the full article here.

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