Previous
Next
one from 4
Whether to complement fashion and style, or to help with exercises, wearable technology is being adopted more and more by more people. And now, by combining some of the most advanced medical features of an exercise tracker with all the functions of a smart watch, some devices, such as the Apple Watch, are literally saving lives.
And the Apple Watch Series 4 offers an impressive package of features, but the main addition is the cardiac tracking and electrocardiogram (ECG) functionality. Apple's clock was already able to register cardiac frequencies, warning users when the numbers are very high and offering statistics on cardiac frequencies at rest. The new Series 4 goes one step further, and allows you to perform your own electrocardiogram (ECG).
Apple Watch saves a life
The Apple Watch ECG functionality has been used repeatedly to alert its users, but the last example shows how low and high heart rate alerts are also discovering unknown cardiac problems. In a recent case, after seeing multiple warnings of low frequency cardiac at rest, a user discovered that he had a serious cardiac anomaly, which led him to a surgery that saved his life.
According to The Telegraph, a 48-year-old man named Paul Hutton received multiple warnings of low cardiac frequency on his Apple Watch. After several days and after performing his own electrocardiogram on his smart watch, I decided to make a medical appointment, and the doctors confirmed that he was indeed suffering from a low cardiac rhythm, and that he had a cardiac anomaly. This led to Hutton undergoing surgery, and is now in recovery, giving credit to the advanced features of his smart watch.
HOW TO PERFORM AN ELECTROCARDIOGRAM
On the back of Apple Watch Series 4 there are a series of electrodes, and these are integrated into the digital crown or Digital Crown, that small side handle that was used to wind the watches of yesteryear. Pressing it with your finger for 30 seconds creates a closed cycle or loop, which then generates an ECG wave. This information goes beyond simply recording your heartbeat to show your heart rate. The data can be used to discover any irregular rhythm and determine if there are signs of atrial fibrillation.
What do cardilogs think?
The Apple Watch Series 4 can perform an electrocardiogram. But is it useful? To learn more about it, we contacted a cardiology expert to find out how beneficial this function could be, if it can really monitor your health, if it's worth it, or if it could even save your life.
"An ECG is much more valuable than a simple heart rate monitor," Dr. Nicholas Tullo, a cardiac electrophysiology expert, told Digital Trends. “The monitoring of the cardiac frequency of physical activity trackers is not always accurate, and does not inform about the cardiac rhythm; seeing an image is much more valuable. "
"An ECG is much more valuable than a simple heart rate monitor."
Dr. Tullo has taught health professionals to read electrocardiograms during decades and is the director of ECG Academy. "The most important thing to diagnose is a very specific arrhythmia known as atrial fibrillation, because it carries a very serious risk of strokes," he explained.
Normally, if you go to a medical center to perform an ECG, a nurse or a doctor will connect 12 wires from your chest to a large machine that records the electrical activity, to get an instant idea of what your heart is doing. The standard test is known as a 12-lead ECG, and simultaneously records electrical activity from multiple locations in the body, which provides 12 different views of the heart. The Apple Watch Series 4 is equivalent to a single-lead ECG.
“Apple Watch only gives you one view; it's just an angle, a view, but it's a useful view, ”said Dr. Tullo. "Many of the monitors we ask patients to use for one or two weeks only offer one view as well."
DO YOU HAVE REAL BENEFITS?
One of the great challenges for cardilogs is that they often hear about cardiac problems after they occur, without being able to replicate the problem. “It's like taking your car to a mechanic and saying: last week it made a strange sound, what could it be?” Said Dr. Tullo. "You can only know what the heart is doing if you record the ECG at the time you have the symptoms."
With the ECG functionality built into the watch you're wearing, you can take an ECG when you have heart palpitations, and then export that data in PDF format and share it with your cardilogo later.
"Medical tests tend to be very expensive and, in general, are only done for very short periods," said Dr. Tullo. "The new Apple Watch could be a valuable tool, because it's like carrying an ECG machine with you."
Apple has clearly been working on this for some time, conducting a heart study with Stanford Medicine to test Apple Watch's ability to identify irregular heart rhythms, hoping to detect problems such as atrial fibrillation. Discovering these problems early could save lives, and any idea of anomalies in the cardiac rhythm, however small, is better than having no idea.
"It is probably not a good idea for a hypochondraco, but the potential advantages far outweigh any possible inconvenience," said Dr. Tullo. “Not everyone will use it, but it is good to have it if you have problems with your health. I mention it to the patients who come to my office. ”
ECG DEVICES ARE NOTHING NEW
There are some other monitoring devices on the market that allow you to drive your own ECG. One that Dr. Tullo has been recommending is an AliveCor monitor, which connects to your smart phone via Bluetooth and costs $ 100 dollars. The company even offers KardiaBand, also $ 100 dollars, which works with the original Apple Watch to add the same ECG functionality.
“It has been a very useful tool for me and my patients,” said Dr. Tullo. "Apple saw the value of that and incorporated it into the clock, which I think is really good."
At Digital Trends we are currently testing the WIWE mobile ECG, a device the size of a credit card that connects to a smart phone application and records an electrocardiogram. If you place the right and left fingers on the sensors, or both thumbs, the ECG will appear on the screen of your phone with a clear indication of any deviation from the normal cardiac rhythm. It costs 289 euros (about $ 340 dollars), but manufacturers trust it is more reliable and accurate than the Apple Watch Series 4.
"Although the device looks promising and its ECG function received authorization from the FDA, concerns arise in terms of reliability," a WIWE spokesperson told us in a statement.
Specifically, the quality of the signal of the electrodes connected to the left grimace and the right finger is questioned, suggesting that the grimace hairs or small finger movements may distort the results. For its part, Apple recommends that you rest your arms on a table or on your legs when you want to register an ECG.
It is also worth noting that the FDA has approved the ECG function of Apple Watch, but with some warnings. The FDA report states that "the ECG data shown by the ECG application is for informational use only." The report also suggests that the ECG application is not suitable for people with "other known arrhythmias" or "people under 22 years of age."
According to the manufacturers of WIWE, this may be due to the fact that the arrhythmia of the respiratory sinus is quite common at an early age and can cause significant fluctuations in cardiac rhythm, although it does not represent a real danger. The WIWE device records more information and is able to perform a more thorough evaluation, which is one of the reasons why the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom has just bought one hundred units of these devices.
HOW DOES APPLE WATCH COMPARE TO OTHER DEVICES?
While Apple Watch Series 4 may not be as accurate as other ECG devices, it may be very useful for detecting potential problems and driving further investigation. Apple Watch Series 4 starts at $ 400, but offers many other useful features and features for health and safety in addition to ECG and cardiac tracking. It can also track falls and call emergency services if it does not detect movement after a minute, can alert you to low cardiac frequencies, and has a number of physical fitness tracking features, along with the ability to interact with notifications.
The truth is that most people may never buy a specific ECG device, but an Apple Watch is a completely different perspective. The ECG function and irregular pace notification on the Apple Watch Series 4 are authorized by the FDA for the United States, and Apple is working to take it to the rest of the world as soon as possible.
Editor Recommendations
