Apple watches now help patients monitor common heart disorder

Apple watches are proving useful in screening for the common heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation, or AFib, according to two studies published in the Journal Of The American College Of Cardiology.

- NANCY LAPID

The Apple Watch Ultra 2.

AFib, which significantly raises the risk of strokes, can be difficult to diagnose because often the rhythm irregularities are intermittent. Apple watch models capable of screening for possible AFib can either passively monitor the wearer's pulse with an optical sensor, or the wearer can place a finger on the crown to produce a one-lead electrocardiogram.

For one of the studies, 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 realised their heart rhythms were irregular.