Can smartwatch save lives by detecting heart attacks?

A 42-year-old man in the United Kingdom recently shared how his smartwatch came to his rescue. As per a Express.co.uk report, Paul Wapham, the CEO of Hockey Wales, experienced a “massive chest pain” during his regular morning run. He said he was on his hands and knees on the road as his “chest felt tight”. Wapham said he then used his smartwatch to call his wife, who then rushed him to the hospital. He got to know he was suffering from a heart attack due to a blocked artery. There have been reports earlier of how smartphones have played a role in saving lives and improving users’ health by using sensors to measure heart rate, electrocardiogram (ECG), and so on. Let’s take a closer look at the story. Recent incidents In June, a 29-year-old woman in United States’ Ohio credited her Apple Watch for saving her life. The wearable sent her an alarm warning her about increased heart rate. After consulting a doctor, she was diagnosed with saddle pulmonary embolism, a severe and life threatening condition. She started treatment and work to improve her health. A Reddit user said in May that an Apple Watch saved her mother’s life by automatically dialling the emergency services after she collapsed in a hotel room in the US from a ruptured aorta. This happened due to Apple’s fall detection feature which automatically calls emergency services if the user is immobile for over a minute. [caption id=“attachment_13370992” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Many smartwatches are equipped with features to record step count, physical activity, sleep quality, and heart rate. Reuters File Photo[/caption] In March, a 36-year-old man in the UK said his Apple Watch alerted him about atrial fibrillation or A-fib – the most common irregular heart rhythm which enhances the risk of stroke, heart failure, and other heart-related complications. He then went to the hospital where it was confirmed he had A-fib. A similar story had emerged last September when the ECG sensor on the Apple Watch detected irregular heart rates in a man in his 50s in the UK. Can smartwatches detect heart attack? Many smartwatches are equipped with features to record step count, physical activity, sleep quality, heart rate and even the ECG – a test to evaluate the electrical activity of the heartbeat. Besides Apple, companies like Samsung, Withings, Fitbit and AliveCor also make wearables with ECG monitors for home use. These watches can usually record heart rate and A-fib. Describing smartwatches as a “wearable revolution”, Dr RR Kasliwal, chairman of clinical and preventive cardiology at Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital, told Indian Express, “No doctor can have their hand on your pulse 24*7, but a smartwatch can. It might not be as accurate as an ECG machine in the hospital, but it will tell the wearer that they are witnessing fluctuations in their heartbeat. This might lead to them seeking care and increased diagnosis of atrial fibrillation.” In a typical ECG test conducted by physicians, about 12 sensors (electrodes) are attached to the chest and limbs of the patient. A computer records this information and displays it on a monitor as waves which helps doctors to determine if someone is having a heart attack. [caption id=“attachment_13371022” align=“alignnone” width=“630”] An employee uses an electrocardiogram function on a Fitbit smartwatch at the IFA consumer technology fair, in Berlin, Germany in 2020. Reuters File Photo[/caption] According to a Texas Heart Institute report, small studies have found that an Apple Watch has “reliably produced a 9-lead ECG by having the wearer perform multiple manoeuvres to obtain a recording”. A study published by JAMA Cardiology in 2020 revealed that ECG monitors on smartwatches were 93 per cent to 95 per cent accurate at “correctly identifying and distinguishing between different types of heart attacks”. However, experts say more research is needed to depend on smartwatches for getting an ECG for early detection of a heart attack. “The Apple Watch is not intended to replace the standard ECG. Rather, it is meant to be used as a self-check screening tool for people who have chest pains or other heart attack symptoms at home or in other environments, with the goal of decreasing the time to treatment and improving the outcome,” Emerson C Perin, MD, PhD, said, as per the Texas Heart Institute report. But there are concerns Doctors say that people having an irregular heartbeat is not rare and that does not mean all irregularities are a cause for concern, reported New York Times (NYT). Dr Mariell Jessup, the American Heart Association’s chief science and medical officer, told NYT that smartwatch monitors could be helpful and even lifesaving for some, but “we do not have enough data yet to recommend it for everyone.” Experts also worry that people could be unnecessarily worried after spotting “meaningless” heart arrhythmias, which might lead to further testing and too-much treatment. Doctors point out that smartwatches are only supplementary devices and should not be relied on as replacements of tests conducted in medical settings. With inputs from agencies