Monitors?

[Lornie64]

My other half has recently been diagnosed with AF and wants to purchase a home monitor.

Any ideas / advice on what he should look for?

Thanks a bundle!

[fallingtopieces]

The best device in my opinion is an Alivecor / Kardia ecg connected to your phone.

All you need to do is download the Kardia app and attach the device to your phone then its ready to record an ecg.

So whenever your husband wants to see what his heart is doing, he can, and this device will record it for him too.

Pat.

amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01A4W...

[Lornie64 in reply to fallingtopieces]

Thank you Pat. I've forwarded the info to my husband. 👍

[CDreamer]

Kardia definately.

[Dodie117]

Agree. Kardia

It especially helps to check if the odd beats he is having are actually AF

This is useful for him and his doctors so everyone can know what's going on

Doesn't have to be attached to phone - will work if alongside it. Before buying check it is compatible with your device.

[biroman]

For anyone thinking of getting a blood-pressure & heartbeat monitor, I've been using a wrist monitor, OMRON RS2 amzn.eu/8zLZmAq

for about 18 months, and it has performed well.

Very useful when I feel AF (fortunately only a few times and months apart so far) to track heart rate. It takes two AAA batteries which last ages. It also has a little icon which shows when it detects irregular heart beat.

Probably not as accurate as a proper sphygmomanometer ( -I've been waiting all my life to slip that word into the conversation! but it helps me understand what my heartrate & BP are doing.

[momist]

+1 for the Kardia. This device works with iPhone/iPad and with the majority of Android devices, including phones and tablets. You _can_ mount the device on the back of the phone/tablet case you are using, or carry it separately. I have mine mounted on the case of my phone, and I have successfully removed it from the case of an old phone that failed, onto a new case for my new phone, using sticky pads.

The device itself works by connecting the two metal touch pads on it to the fingers (two at least) of each hand, thereby giving a connection up each arm to detect the electrical signals given off by the heart. This is similar to the original two-wire ECG (EKG, invented by a German). You get a graph of your heart activity including all the little details before and after the main beat, as well as the regularity or not of the beat. The connection to the phone is by supersonic tones to the microphone. Most tablets and all phones have a microphone. The app required is free, but not available for the less mainstream operating systems.

For the first month you get a trial of the premium account which costs £10 per month to continue, but you do NOT need the account to record a trace, and email the result to yourself, or anyone else. The account allows for cloud storage of all your traces though (I've not bothered). The device costs around £99 plus delivery, and can be found at a slight discount, but you might buy old stock that way of an earlier version.

Most (not all) blood pressure monitors are useless for AF. Most (not all) pulse monitors use an LED to detect the slight reddening of your capillaries during the high blood pressure of the pulse, which again is fairly useless while in AF as there is unlikely to be an efficient pumping action (hence your weakness).

Disclaimer: I have NO connection to Kardia/AliveCor. I am just a happy user.

[AnneTS]

I don't think you can beat the Alivecor. At my last appointment with my Consultant I simply handed my phone over and my whole heart activity could be seen in one go. It was great not having to remember how often I was going in and out of AF. The Omiron is good if you also need to check your blood pressure regularly but imho not quite as effective as the Alivecor for keeping tabs on your heart rate. Anne