Monitoring

[travelbug54]

Hi Everyone, being as the dreaded AF came back after my ablation of 16 months ago I am seriously thinking of getting a Kardia Mobile by AliveCor, Black 0.6oz on Amazon. Being as this item is expensive It would be interesting to know what other members use to record their AF. It would be good to take a trace "should" I go into AF in the future and send to my Dr, I would need to ask him if this would be acceptable as confirmation to put on my records as I think its a good idea to get any attacks down on my records...... is this monitor one of the best to use and am I looking in the right direction? Many thanks for reading....Caroline

[rosyG]

It would be accepted- we use them for screening in the town and the consultant diagnoses using them, Ive found mine very useful for recording and sending to my doctor

[Hidden]

Hi Caroline,

Well, I haven't got a Kardia and because of all the adulation associated with the product it needs to be put in perspective.

I don't have it because the Kardia people couldn't give me a guarantee that it would work with my latest smartphone - an android, a Motorola Moto Z2 Play, brand new in November 2017. ( they have tested Kardia on another Motorola model phone, but not mine). If your smartphone appears on the list of products that they have tested it on then no problems, seems to me they are heavily into bed with Apple and Samsung (no surprise there then !).

So, I searched around and from Amazon UK I bought a handheld Healforce PC80B (suggest you check out Amazon and the Healforce website).

I have a Blood Pressure monitor which will detect my BP, HR and whether I've lurched into AF.

Until 15 February 2018, I have been AF free for nearly 3 and half years, at about 3.30 am that night I awoke from sleep (SLEEPING ON MY LEFT SIDE) with my heart banging away like it was trying to break out of my chest cavity. I got up, wired up to my Blood Pressure monitor which then told me I was in AF (not surprised, just needed some sort of confirmation). I then got out my Healforce PC80B and took a reading and fairly predicatably it recorded my AF and all the chaotic electrical activity going on with my heart. It clocked my HR at 149 bpm which was pretty well line ball with what the Blood Pressure monitor was saying. I have some of these readings but this site will not load them.

What did I do, absolutely nothing - I personally believe that panic and stress are the worst bedfellows - so I sat and watched late nite/early morning TV and hey 5 hours later my heart had returned by itself to NSR. I recorded several traces during these 5 hours.

My heart rate took another 24 hours to return to normal (65 ish BPM) and without any medical intervention apart from my normal daily dose of Bisoprolol.

I have never had any AF activity return since that one occasion in February.

My Healforce device has no facility where you can refer a reading for interpretation as Kardia ( I believe has - for which they charge a fee). It can be downloaded to your PC and from there sent to your GP or consultant. In any event I figured why bother with an interpretation at a fee anyway. If you're in AF then best sort it out with your GP or consultant anyway. This produces a printout and you can email it to whoever. No sweat.

Yes, I'm quite satisfied with it. How accurate is it - dunno - the only way you can check that is to confirm it against a simultaneous reading from a hospital ECG machine, and that wasn't possible.

It does have the CE stamp on it (CE product marking is an EU legal requirement for products sold in the EU area). Healforce is a Chinese product as is my Moto Z2 Play.

If you want further info suggest you message me lest I be accused of product promotion

John

PS heart sent me a message later saying it was sorry, didn't mean to frighten me by giving me an event, vagal nerve got a bit trapped sleeping on left side) just joking.

[wilsond in reply to Hidden]

that's interesting,I couldn't get my Kardia to work properly with my basic android phone.Will look up this product,cheers!

[Hidden]

As has been said, very useful for sending recordings to doctors/arrhythmia nurses but make sure it is compatible with your phone....

[IanMK]

Hi Caroline

I bought one recently so that I could correlate the sensations that I occasionally get with my arrhythmias. My cardiologist thinks that it is a useful device. It’s small, so convenient to carry with you and doesn’t require leads to connect to your chest.

Although Alivecor provides a subscription service to keep your traces online on their servers, it’s possible to email each trace as a PDF record to yourself (or anyone else) from the smartphone app.

Although it may seem expensive, it is a relatively niche product and this is your health we’re talking about

Assuming that you are in the UK, note that - as is often the case with American products and services in the UK - we have to pay more in the UK for the same product. For the subscription service, we pay more and actually get a poorer level of service. However, as I say, this service is not essential.

I hope this helps.

[Mike11]

I use a different (now not available) multilead device and have had varying experiences with doctors. My GP and consultants are all happy for me to send them my results as it saves them the time and hassle of asking for an ECG just to see if there's any problem, but I've found quite a few junior cardiologists who don't trust these devices or a patient's ability to take their own ECG.

[momist]

+1 from me for the Kardia. I believe (no one has yet proved me wrong) that it WILL work with any up to date Android device. I know very little about the Apple iOS stuff. As long as the device has a microphone and can run the Kardia app, I don't see how it could not work. The Kardia communicates with the App by using audio into the microphone, outside normal hearing range.

As others have said, you do not need to subscribe to the monthly deal offered by AliveCor. I select the 'email' option in the App (which has little to do with actual email) and save the resulting pdf file into a folder on my (free) Dropbox account. In there, it appears on every device I own including my PC where I can attach it to emails or print it out on paper. I'm sure that any other cloud service (Google, Microsoft or whoever's) would work just as well.

I have never paid AliveCor for their interpretation service, but their website has some interesting stuff to read on how to interpret your own readings, not that this is strictly necessary. AF is painfully obvious in the trace, and the device detects it's presence anyway and tells you. The normal trace is for 30 seconds, and I've never used anything else, but that is configurable within the app anyway, so if you want longer recordings you can get them.

The slender black plastic device, with two stainless metal pads on one face, has a battery cover on the other side which takes a watch type battery. I've not had to replace mine yet in over a year. The device slides into a plastic holder fitted with a sticky tape band to glue it to the back of your mobile phone, if you wish. I stick it to the additional protective case I use on my phone. When my first phone failed, I levered it off the old case, and scraped all the tape off and then used some adhesive sponge type tape to stick it to my new phone's new case. You can carry it loose, and use it that way though, or take it out of the slide to use it separately on a different device, if you like. I've used mine on two different phones (Samsung S4Mini, Motorola G5) and two different tablets (Hudl2, Huawei M3) and also seen it work on a third (Chinese) phone.

[Buffafly]

Cardiologists seem to be up to speed on Kardia - I recently found my recordings useful to show mine that I definitely was having AF events and not other palpitations, when they began, how long they lasted and how frequent they were. Job done.

Unfortunately many GPs don't seem to be the same, refer scornfully to 'an app on your phone' in a tone which suggests they think I have a bad case of health anxiety........... maybe I'm being unfair......

[AndyFoz]

Hi travelbug54,

You may be interested in this article. Also saw, chief executive of NHS, Simon Stevens?, discussing this on the One show a week or so back. I have one of these and have found it invaluable.

pharmatimes.com/news/nhs_ro...

Cheers, Andy

[Hidden]

This is probably going to sound archaic, I am a retired RN and am symptomatic with a fib so when it happens, I pull out my stethescope and listen to my heart plus it's the only way I can get an accurate heart rate. So far, the cardiologist and EP take my word for it when I report a fib events.

[doodle68]

I have been reading the replies with interest, thank you everyone ...

Can I add Kardia is now approved by NICE and discussed here..

nice.org.uk/advice/mib35

I have been considering getting a device of some kind although I previously dismissed the option considering taking my pulse to be an accurate diagnosis of AF but it is not always so clear what is going on since I started taking medication.

I am put off some devices by the need to fiddle around with electrodes although buying a Kardia will mean I also have buy a phone or tablet too.

I am still considering my options

[fifitb]

My ablation for this week (Thursday, 31st May) was cancelled this last Friday, due to other patients being more urgent! This is the second cancellation for me in a month. The weird thing is, on that same Friday evening, I suffered a severe AFib episode, with my heart feeling as though it was leaping out of my chest, I felt so dizzy and faint and thought I might pass out and ended up (after 15 mins or so) phoning for an ambulance. I had felt symptoms throughout the day (mini flutterings and slightly tight chest, and hoped these would go away!). I have not had such a bad symptomatic episode in a long time! Weird to happen on the day the hospital cancels my ablation date!

The ambulance arrived within about 15 minutes, just when symptoms felt really bad and I barely was able to open my front door for them. They took me into the ambulance and I had ECG, blood pressure and blood tests. It did not take long before I was back in sinus rhythm and I did not want to go to A&E, so they said to just relax and go to bed (it was about 10:30 pm). If I had another episode I was advised to ring for another ambulance and then go in to A&E. I didn't want to do that! I actually did have another AFib episode at 2:45 am as I tried to sleep, but it was not as bad and stopped after about 45 minutes. However, I was left feeling physically wiped out, and this lasted all the next day. Even today I feel lethargic!

I have not been given another ablation date, but I feel I need this ablation! I shall phone the hospital tomorrow, as this long weekend means no one was available to talk to about it!!!

[travelbug54]

Thank you all for your interesting replies, I ordered a Kardia last night! I have decided should I need to not to pay the monthly fee but to email any results to my Dr and Cardiologist and keep results in a folder, hope that makes sense! fifitb sorry to hear your ablation has been cancelled again, try not to let it stress you out too much as we know stress has such negative side effects for us. I do hope you get another ablation date very soon. Healthy wishes to you all.... Caroline

[Steven12]

It's amazing. No brainer for any afibber if you have a reasonable phone. Mine is galaxy s7.

[Flimmeri]

The easiest way to get a record of your Afib is to go to emergency when you are having one and they take a ecg which they can send to your doctor, cardiologist. Once they have proof you have atrial fibrillation they know what meds to give you. In my opinion you do not need to record every episode, unless your cardiologist requires it. Been living with this nuisance for 20 plus years and in my case there is not a cure. Ablations, pacemaker and medication have helped some, but unfortunately it still comes on fairly often.

We all are different, I read some people only have had couple of episodes a year for instance. I am not one of these lucky ones. You just have to accept this and do your best trying not to do the triggers. Mind you one does not know always what the trigger was. Us Afibbers just try to make a best of it and accept it.