Covid detection

[Benjiapple]

Did someone read about the rumor that the applewatch could detect Covid-19 ????? Doesn´t sound real :/

New studies show how Apple Watch can help detect COVID-19 prior to symptoms and testing - 9to5Mac

A pair of new studies highlighted by a CBS News report indicate that smartwatches such as the Apple Watch can...

9to5mac.com

 

[Pakaku]

"heart rate variability markers change as inflammation develops in the body, and Covid is an incredibly inflammatory event"

If they're looking at significant heart-rate variability and resting heart rate, that's something smartwatches can definitely track. I don't think this is the same as saying an Apple Watch can detect COVID (so that headline is misleading, but who's surprised), it only means that it can detect a symptom that may be because of COVID.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

It's not April 1.

What in the story seems unreal? The explanation seems quite reasonable - heart rate elevates under stress, and that stress can have an otherwise-undetected cause. Since COVID-19 has a direct effect on the cardiopulmonary system, elevated heart rate would be a likely early symptom.

However, what seems likely to me is that this study is finding a correlation rather than a direct diagnosis. There are certainly other possible causes for elevated average heart rate. At the moment, there's a higher probability that, within the population that participated in the study (healthcare workers), COVID-19 would turn out to be a relatively common underlying cause. It's not likely that it was the only cause.

To me, the takeaway is that this is a potentially useful early warning system - a good reason for a healthcare worker to be tested for COVID-19. If it can detect the possibility of an infection a few days before other symptoms become detectable, that adds up to more effective treatment and faster quarantining - again, among healthcare workers a very, very good thing.

 

[Benjiapple]

It's not April 1.

What in the story seems unreal? The explanation seems quite reasonable - heart rate elevates under stress, and that stress can have an otherwise-undetected cause. Since COVID-19 has a direct effect on the cardiopulmonary system, elevated heart rate would be a likely early symptom.

However, what seems likely to me is that this study is finding a correlation rather than a direct diagnosis. There are certainly other possible causes for elevated average heart rate. At the moment, there's a higher probability that, within the population that participated in the study (healthcare workers), COVID-19 would turn out to be a relatively common underlying cause. It's not likely that it was the only cause.

To me, the takeaway is that this is a potentially useful early warning system - a good reason for a healthcare worker to be tested for COVID-19. If it can detect the possibility of an infection a few days before other symptoms become detectable, that adds up to more effective treatment and faster quarantining - again, among healthcare workers a very, very good thing.

Well to be honest there is a lot of s**t going on.
I thougt news like that are gonna be a bigger thing.
Havent heard smth about it until i read it on coincidence.

 

[FHoff]

“CBS news” was enough for me.

 

[Apple fanboy]

If they could do it though, imagine the sales!

 

[Apple_Robert]

Some studies suggest it might be possible. At this point, I would not get your hopes up.

 

[jz0309]

I'm not a medical expert, but heart rate variability could have lots of reasons, way too many to indicate you have COVID, imho. I think this is bogus, you have to take a test to proof that you are infected, or not, a swab test ...

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I'm not a medical expert, but heart rate variability could have lots of reasons, way too many to indicate you have COVID, imho. I think this is bogus, you have to take a test to proof that you are infected, or not, a swab test ...

Yes, heart rate variability could have lots of causes. So do fever, high/low blood pressure, fatigue, coughing, headache... No disease is diagnosed from a single symptom. The symptoms are clues; indications of possible illness. The next step is to find out exactly what that illness may be.

What was learned in this study is that a variety of wrist-worn heart rate monitors (Apple's being only one of several) could detect very small changes in average heart rate (as they are worn constantly, there are weeks, months, or years worth of readings available for comparison). Those variations correlated well to COVID-19 infections among the study group (healthcare workers). It does not state that this is a way to diagnose COVID, but rather, it's a way to detect several days sooner than other methods, the possibility of a COVID infection. It's a reason to take that swab test, it's not a substitute for it.

You could as easily say that fever can have lots of causes, so therefore measuring body temperatures is a bogus test for (name your illness here). Yet in today's environment, scanning with an infrared fever thermometer is part of routine screening for possible COVID-19. Temperature-taking alone cannot diagnose the disease, but at this particular point in time, due to the current rate of COVID infection in the population, what it does to those who catch it, what it costs to treat those with serious cases, the number of people who may become infected by a yet-untreated carrier... an elevated temperature is a good enough reason to take a COVID test and obtain a proper diagnosis. So, why not an elevated average heart rate? That's one of the core benefits of wearable biomedical monitors.

 

[jz0309]

Yes, heart rate variability could have lots of causes. So do fever, high/low blood pressure, fatigue, coughing, headache... No disease is diagnosed from a single symptom. The symptoms are clues; indications of possible illness. The next step is to find out exactly what that illness may be.

What was learned in this study is that a variety of wrist-worn heart rate monitors (Apple's being only one of several) could detect very small changes in average heart rate (as they are worn constantly, there are weeks, months, or years worth of readings available for comparison). Those variations correlated well to COVID-19 infections among the study group (healthcare workers). It does not state that this is a way to diagnose COVID, but rather, it's a way to detect several days sooner than other methods, the possibility of a COVID infection. It's a reason to take that swab test, it's not a substitute for it.

You could as easily say that fever can have lots of causes, so therefore measuring body temperatures is a bogus test for (name your illness here). Yet in today's environment, scanning with an infrared fever thermometer is part of routine screening for possible COVID-19. Temperature-taking alone cannot diagnose the disease, but at this particular point in time, due to the current rate of COVID infection in the population, what it does to those who catch it, what it costs to treat those with serious cases, the number of people who may become infected by a yet-untreated carrier... an elevated temperature is a good enough reason to take a COVID test and obtain a proper diagnosis. So, why not an elevated average heart rate? That's one of the core benefits of wearable biomedical monitors.

Thanks for your response, a good summary of the study. I actually did read through some of the links in the article.

We have not really heard much of anything about these findings, and I think the problem is that it's been a very narrow study group (healthcare workers) who should be able to interpret the data on their own (I did not find any reference to that in the study though).
For a normal user, your device would need to alarm you that your heart rate is "unusual" for this to be effective, and for that, many more studies would have to be started and the device manufacturers would have provide the tools (data analysis, alarms and such).
In a non-pandemic world, I could see this leading to many "false alarms", read doctor visits etc.
If we had this capability available today, and it would be targeted to encourage COVID tests, I can see the benefit, but, I can also see that too many people get alarmed and swamp the healthcare system for no reason. I think that is part of why this has not been in the news more ...

 

[ericg301]

i became a believer back with the original apple watch, 5 years ago. over a 48 hour period, i noticed that my resting heart rate was 20% higher than normal, even overnight. BOOM! next thing i knew, i had the flu. i mentioned this to my dr and he said that my body was already gearing up to fight the infection, resulting in an increased heart rate.

my watch knew i had the flu before i felt a thing.

 

[Blowback]

i became a believer back with the original apple watch, 5 years ago. over a 48 hour period, i noticed that my resting heart rate was 20% higher than normal, even overnight. BOOM! next thing i knew, i had the flu. i mentioned this to my dr and he said that my body was already gearing up to fight the infection, resulting in an increased heart rate.

my watch knew i had the flu before i felt a thing.

Like wise .... two summers or so ago my Apple Watch alerted me to an elevated BPM and asked if I were exercising or running...I wasn't . Took the watch off, washed the backside along with my wrist and placed back on....alerted me again! Long story short: nurses in the ER found that I was severely dehydrated (crazy, wasn't thirsty and didn't feel anything)...spent most of the evening in the ER being re-hydrated via saline drip! If something similar happens again I will trust the watch....'wasted' doctor or ER charges...that I can live with..... 👌.

 

[theotherphil]

My recent covid infection was picked up by my watch before I was obviously symptomatic. The following pics....I was at work Mon-Thurs and therefore performed a RAT daily and was negative (twice on Thursday - morning and arvo). It was Friday the 23rd that I awoke with sore throat and blocked sinuses and tested positive both on RAT and PCR.

Over the following week, it has been interesting to follow the progression of health metrics. Whilst I'm still not 100%, I am tracking in the right direction to restart my physical training. This is absolutely something that an algorithm could alert a user to. It doesn't necessarily have to be specifically to covid - a more generalised "potential infection alert" when a number of health metrics move away from baseline.

 

[Monkswhiskers]

i became a believer back with the original apple watch, 5 years ago. over a 48 hour period, i noticed that my resting heart rate was 20% higher than normal, even overnight. BOOM! next thing i knew, i had the flu. i mentioned this to my dr and he said that my body was already gearing up to fight the infection, resulting in an increased heart rate.

my watch knew i had the flu before i felt a thing.

Just had flu last month, resting hr went sky high then sore throat fever followed. Interesting to track the symptoms and collect data but I guess it’s not going to prevent illness but could give an indication as to when to take mitigating medication.

 

[DouginMN]

My recent covid infection was picked up by my watch before I was obviously symptomatic. The following pics....I was at work Mon-Thurs and therefore performed a RAT daily and was negative (twice on Thursday - morning and arvo). It was Friday the 23rd that I awoke with sore throat and blocked sinuses and tested positive both on RAT and PCR.

View attachment 2134355



Over the following week, it has been interesting to follow the progression of health metrics. Whilst I'm still not 100%, I am tracking in the right direction to restart my physical training. This is absolutely something that an algorithm could alert a user to. It doesn't necessarily have to be specifically to covid - a more generalised "potential infection alert" when a number of health metrics move away from baseline.


View attachment 2134370

Question: how do you get the actual Wrist Temperature to display vs deviation from baseline?

Thanks.

 

[addamas]

Question: how do you get the actual Wrist Temperature to display vs deviation from baseline?

Thanks.

You can see deviation by entering Health app when Wrist Temp is added as Favorite or by entering this part of health data and switching to first tab and manually checking data.

Detailed info can be taken from same part / page when scrolled down to “Show All Data”.

I also use this app but have to remember what is my baseline (has widget and app for Apple Watch)

‎Wrist Temperature Analyse

‎This app is for Apple Watch 8 and Ultra users. These great watches measure your wrist temperature every night while sleeping and safe the value to HealthKit. This app reads these values from HealthKit, do a basic analysis and display them as a lock screen widget, normal widget and complication.

apps.apple.com

 

[theotherphil]

Question: how do you get the actual Wrist Temperature to display vs deviation from baseline?

Thanks.

I use the HealthFit app on iOS for collating health and wellness data as it's a little more powerful with it's syncing and display functions. It can read all data from the health logs so can display actual wrist temp also.

 

[DouginMN]

I use the HealthFit app on iOS for collating health and wellness data as it's a little more powerful with it's syncing and display functions. It can read all data from the health logs so can display actual wrist temp also.

Perfect. I use the HealthFit app for data synching between platforms, but I never looked in the “Health” section. There is was. Thanks.

 

[BlackBun]

This is the wrist data I had when I got covid recently.

 

[stevencmacchen]

My recent covid infection was picked up by my watch before I was obviously symptomatic. The following pics....I was at work Mon-Thurs and therefore performed a RAT daily and was negative (twice on Thursday - morning and arvo). It was Friday the 23rd that I awoke with sore throat and blocked sinuses and tested positive both on RAT and PCR.

View attachment 2134355
View attachment 2134356
View attachment 2134358
View attachment 2134357


Over the following week, it has been interesting to follow the progression of health metrics. Whilst I'm still not 100%, I am tracking in the right direction to restart my physical training. This is absolutely something that an algorithm could alert a user to. It doesn't necessarily have to be specifically to covid - a more generalised "potential infection alert" when a number of health metrics move away from baseline.


View attachment 2134370
View attachment 2134369
View attachment 2134371

Are those data from the original "Health" app or other apps?

 

[GlenK]

I track my heart rate carefully and much like theotherphil and the day I got covid my average HR spiked to 90 bpm the day I got covid. Respiratory rate went up and Ox2 when down.

 

[secretk]

I track my heart rate carefully and much like theotherphil and the day I got covid my average HR spiked to 90 bpm the day I got covid. Respiratory rate went up and Ox2 when down.

Had rather similar experience. I saw spike in resting heart rate (from 54/55 to 67), saw increase in breathing rate per minute during sleep (from average of 13.2 per minute to 16 per minute). I had rather mild case in COVID so did not see decrease in blood oxygen.

I have had colds in the past even with stuffed nose and did not see breathing increase so I decided to test myself for COVID because of the spike I saw on the watch and yep I was positive for COVID. I did try to explain a bit my journey around COVID and how the watched helped me here - How Apple Watch helps me monitor my COVID symptoms.

It was more on how I was monitoring my vitals with the watch once I knew that I had COVID than how much the watch helped detecting COVID.

 

[rjw1678]

You all are acting like hypochondriacs!

 

[Shanghaichica]

My recent covid infection was picked up by my watch before I was obviously symptomatic. The following pics....I was at work Mon-Thurs and therefore performed a RAT daily and was negative (twice on Thursday - morning and arvo). It was Friday the 23rd that I awoke with sore throat and blocked sinuses and tested positive both on RAT and PCR.

View attachment 2134355
View attachment 2134356
View attachment 2134358
View attachment 2134357


Over the following week, it has been interesting to follow the progression of health metrics. Whilst I'm still not 100%, I am tracking in the right direction to restart my physical training. This is absolutely something that an algorithm could alert a user to. It doesn't necessarily have to be specifically to covid - a more generalised "potential infection alert" when a number of health metrics move away from baseline.


View attachment 2134370
View attachment 2134369
View attachment 2134371

How do you get your body temperature with the Apple Watch?

 

[Howard2k]

You all are acting like hypochondriacs!

COVID isn’t real! It’s all a conspiracy.