Assessment of effectiveness of mobile phone application in detection of heart arrhythmias in comparison to 12 lead electrocardiogram and pulse measuring

Abstract

Background: Nowadays more and more people suffer from arrhythmias. The arrhythmias can be both paroxysmal or persistent. Technological progress leads to miniaturization and personalization of electronic devices.Aims: The study aimed to declare if the effectiveness of mobile phone applications in arrhythmia detection can be compared with standard 12 leads electrocardiogram and manual pulse measurements.Methods: Each person had a manual pulse measurement on the radial artery for 30 seconds as an initial examination. The next 4 examinations were performed by various mobile applications, one for each application. The following applications were used: Kardia, Diagnostyka kardiologiczna, HeartBeats, Photo AFib Detector. Kardia examination was performed with a dedicated measure device. The last examination was a 12-lead electrocardiogram.Results: 121 people take part in the examination (67% were men, average age was 65,4 +/- 12,09). 61 of them had an arrhythmia during the examination. The control group consisted of 60 people without arrhythmia history. The following values of sensitivity [se] and specificity [sp] were obtained: Kardia (se: 98% sp: 100%), Diagnostyka Kardiologiczna (se: 77% sp: 58%), HeartBeats (se: 89% sp: 93%), PhotoAFib Detector (se: 18% sp: 90%), manual pulse measuring (se: 91% sp: 100%). Heartbeats and PhotoAFib Detector obtained a negative statistically significant correlation between age and effectiveness of measurements.Conclusion: Mobile phone applications can be in the future valuable alternative for 12 lead electrocardiogram and pulse measuring in arrhythmia detection, however, it should be noted that not all of them have enough quality. Only certified applications should be used as a diagnostic method.