Researchers, with the intention of offering heart disease patients who need to quickly and effectively monitor irregular heartbeats, an easier solution, have discovered a palpitation tracking smartphone application that offers performance comparable to the 14-day monitors standard medical.
In this study, researchers evaluated the effectiveness of the AliveCor Heart Monitor application.
"We showed that we can do as well with the app as with the event monitors, The app is easier for patients to use and much more acceptable to them," said Anne Curtis, professor at University at Buffalo in New York, US.
One of the shortcomings of classic cardiac monitors is the fact that they must be worn everywhere.
"The event monitors require electrocardiographic electrodes to be attached to the patient's skin, which can be irritating," she said.
"Then the patient has to wear the device that is attached to the electrodes, which is somewhat cumbersome, and most patients do not like to wear it in public. Hence, compliance is often poor," Curtis explained.
"The point of the study was to determine whether any smartphone app could be good enough to replace what we normally use now, which is a 14-30 day event monitor," Curtis noted.
Throughout the two-week study, 32 patients who had some cardiac symptoms were asked to use both methods to record when they had palpitations.
The researchers found that the AliveCor Heart Monitor smartphone app correctly recorded 91 percent of the total compared to 87,5 percent recorded by standard monitors.
The patients who were much more likely to be compatible with the smartphone application were in the proportion of 94% compared to only 58% of those who trust those with the classic monitor.
The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) in San Francisco, USA.
