Stanford Medicine Publishes Results of Apple Heart Study

[RalfTheDog]

Other than if the RAM is soldered into the 16" MacBook, the question of the day is why didn't 1711 people return the patches?

I have to admit, I used my patch to stop smoking.

 

[Neberheim]

I was one of the false positives who wore and actually returned the ECG patch. The doctor I spoke to post-ECG said that they were very happy to have the data, because I am a distance runner. My arrhythmia warning came overnight, when my HR dips into the 40's, sometimes the low 40's. She said it might help them reduce false positives.

After you received an irregular rhythm alert and the ECG patches, you did or did not have subsequent alerts while wearing the patches? If you did have alerts while wearing the ECG patches, then rhythm was determined not to be A-fib? And if so, what was the identified rhythm at the time of the watch alert?

See my earlier post if you're not sure what I'm getting at.

 

[gnasher729]

The report is confusing. As I read it, only 34% of people who got irregular heart rhythm warning from AW actually had atrial fibrillation. That's 66% false positive rate which is unacceptable.

If 34% get potentially life saving treatment, and 66% are told "false alarm", that's not unacceptable at all. That is an excellent result.

 

[mdmitchell]

If 34% get potentially life saving treatment, and 66% are told "false alarm", that's not unacceptable at all. That is an excellent result.

Well, it depends on what the consequences of a false positive are. If the consequences are a surgical procedure with a risk of death or serious complications, then it may not be excellent. Likewise, the benefit side can be overstated. What we're getting here is an AF diagnosis hours to days sooner that one would otherwise get based on symptoms instead of the watch reading.

Thankfully, in the case of devices for AF detection, while the benefit is earlier diagnosis, and a relatively small number of patients have a fatal stroke during that period between the onset of AF and the patient realizing s/he has symptoms, the consequences of a false positive are small: an extra visit to the doctor or nurse and possibly an unnecessary full ECG. Further, some of those false positives aren't really false positives: they're real AF episodes that resolved spontaneously, and the patient is likely to have more such episodes in the future. A first alert from the watch or other personal device (like a Kardia Mobile) can end up initiating a management plan to watch for and respond quickly to future episodes.

 

[jhfenton]

After you received an irregular rhythm alert and the ECG patches, you did or did not have subsequent alerts while wearing the patches? If you did have alerts while wearing the ECG patches, then rhythm was determined not to be A-fib? And if so, what was the identified rhythm at the time of the watch alert?

See my earlier post if you're not sure what I'm getting at.

I have not any subsequent alerts from the Watch, and the doctor said that there were no significant arrhythmias during the week I wore the patch.

I've also never had anything other than sinus rhythm diagnosed using the Series 4 ECG app--except when my HR is under 50. (The app will not give a diagnosis if your HR is under 50.)