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By Alan Mozes<\/b>
HealthDay Reporter<\/i><\/p>\n
TUESDAY, Sept. 1, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Could a smartwatch app save a heart attack<\/a> patient’s life? Quite possibly, according to Italian researchers.<\/p>\n They found that electrocardiograph (EKG<\/a>) readings from a smartwatch were nearly as accurate as standard EKGs among patients with suspected heart attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n “A [standard] electrocardiograph is not always readily available,” said study author Dr. Ciro Indolfi. “[So] the ability to identify an ongoing heart<\/a> attack quickly and easily thanks to the use of a simple smartphone could be of great help in certain situations in reducing the negative consequences of a heart attack<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Indolfi is director of cardiovascular research at Magna Graecia University in Catanzaro, Italy.<\/p>\n An EKG<\/a> is a graphic representation of the heart<\/a>‘s electrical activity. Indolfi noted that these readouts are critical for establishing whether a patient with chest pain<\/a> has had a heart attack. It can also quickly identify specific causes.<\/p>\n To see whether smartphone electrocardiograms actually work, researchers assessed EKG reliability among 81 patients who sought care for a likely heart attack at one clinic between April 2019 and January 2020. Two-thirds were men (average age: 61).<\/p>\n All received a standard “12-lead” EKG, which uses 12 electrodes at different spots on the chest and limbs to produce a reading.<\/p>\n Patients also had an EKG using the Apple Watch Series 4. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the smartwatch’s built-in EKG tool as a reliable way to detect the serious heartbeat irregularity known as atrial fibrillation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Instead of 12 electrode leads, the smartwatch is equipped with sensors designed to form a single electrode lead. As a workaround, researchers successively placed the watch in nine spots on each patient’s body to generate multiple readings. The readings were then uploaded to an Apple iPhone.<\/p>\n For comparison purposes, 19 men and women who were not suspected of having experienced a heart attack also had standard and smartwatch EKGs.<\/p>\n Watch-generated EKGs were 94% accurate when it came to correctly identifying and distinguishing between various types of heart attacks<\/a>, according to Indolfi. The watch also correctly noted that no heart attack had taken place in more than 9 out of 10 healthy patients.<\/p>\n The watch does not generate a diagnosis; the EKG readings need to be interpreted by a doctor. But the findings suggest that “with the Apple Watch it is possible to perform a nine-lead EKG with an almost similar reliability as the standard EKG,” Indolfi said.<\/p>\n That’s important, he added, because the faster post-heart attack treatments are administered, the better the outcome. That’s especially true, Indolfi said, among patients who experience a very severe form of heart attack known as a STEMI (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction<\/a>).<\/p>\n Such patients can do well after insertion of a stent<\/a> or a balloon (coronary angioplasty<\/a>) to widen a blocked artery, Indolfi noted. But that procedure only “reduces mortality if it is performed promptly,” meaning administering an EKG within 10 minutes and then, treatment within two hours.<\/p>\n Dr. Gregg Fonarow, director of the Ahmanson-University of California, Los Angeles Cardiomyopathy<\/a> Center, welcomed the findings with cautious optimism.<\/p>\n “This new feasibility study shows that a smartwatch could be used to obtain multiple leads of an EKG,” he said, underscoring the “high level [of] agreement” between smartwatch and standard readings.<\/p>\n Fonarow said more follow-up work will be needed to confirm the findings.<\/p>\n But he agreed that smartwatch EKGs could ultimately prove very helpful in speeding up diagnosis and treatment in situations where time is of the essence, including heart attacks<\/a> in setting where standard EKGs are not available.<\/p>\n The findings were published in the Aug. 31 online edition of JAMA Cardiology<\/i>.<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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