Recording an ECG

[Karendeena]

My EP has been telling me about the apple watch that records an ECG, he then says you can download it to your phone and send it over, so it can be seen and confirmed if you are in afib or just having ectopics. As I have an Android phone and not an i - phone, can anybody recommend an alternative please?

[dojurols]

I use a Kardia Mobile, very accurate and works well with android phones. Given to me by a Dr friend at a conference.

[Buffafly]

Kardia. A lot cheaper!

[Physalis]

There's the Samsung Galaxy Watch3 ECG, blood pressure and oxygen levels. Does a lot more than the Kardia.

[CDreamer]

Kardia - it will give a much better and more detailed ECG trace anyway.

[Physalis in reply to CDreamer]

No, I don't think that is true. The Kardia 6 lead version might but for routine recording a watch is much more convenient.

[CDreamer in reply to Physalis]

It maybe more convenient however having used both I have found that the dedicated Kardia is able to give a much clearer trace, you can adjust the time, it’s algorithm seems more responsive than the Apple6 - as I’ve never used the Samsung watch I couldn’t comment on that.

The question was anything cheaper? Don’t know how much the Galaxy Watch is but I do know that the Kardia was a third of the price of the iWatch.

[Physalis in reply to CDreamer]

The question was about not having an iPhone for the Apple watch which her EP had recommended. The Galaxy Watch3 works with an Android phone.

It wasn't about anything being cheaper. My Apple watch was cheap considering what it can do. It's a mini computer.

I got my first computer about 35 years ago and it cost the earth and did hardly anything.

[Buffafly in reply to CDreamer]

Add cost of iPhone to watch!

[Physalis in reply to Buffafly]

But the question was not about the cost of a phone. She already has an Android phone so she might like to consider the Galaxy Watch3 which costs about £319.

[Buffafly in reply to Physalis]

We realise that but assume (perhaps wrongly) that most people would not wish to spend more than necessary if all they need the gizmo for is to record and share a rhythm strip.

[Physalis in reply to Buffafly]

I think you are wrong in thinking that everyone is worried about the extra £200 for the watch instead of the Kardia. I expect some are. I have never paid £200 for a private consultation with a doctor but a lot of people think it is worth the money.

To my mind there is one fundamental difference. The Kardia records individual ECGs. As far as I know it doesn't continually measure the heart rate which is a lot more useful. It doesn't measure blood pressure or O2 levels or detect a fall which is important when you get older and it is much less accessible.

[Karendeena in reply to Physalis]

Hi Phyllis, yes, the cost is not something that bothers me if it does the job I am prepared to invest, thank you

[CDreamer in reply to Buffafly]

Always had that as always used Apple - but yes exactly.

[momist]

Definitely a Kardia. However, do some research on it first. The (older) single trace Kardia uses high frequency sound to communicate with your phone or tablet, and some high-end phones filter this out in some way (noise cancelling?) and it just won't work. Only really a problem if you paid more than £250 for your phone. The newer 6-lead uses bluetooth and should be OK, but it's dearer and can be more faff to use. (My One+ 5T doesn't work. I now use my tablet instead).

The Withings MoveECG watch I used to love, let me down as battery life was less than 6 months (advertised as a year) and the battery replacement was very difficult and eventually destroyed the case. The watch glass was cheap plastic which got very scratched up in normal wear. There are better reports about the replacement model, Withings Scanwatch, but it costs too much.

You might prefer a watch, though, so look at the Samsung and competitors. Don't be confused by the watches that track heart rate - they do not scan your heart and they can give erroneous readings when in AF.

[Buffafly in reply to momist]

I have a watch that tracks heart rate and seems fairly accurate in sinus but hopeless in AF. As I got it to count steps I don’t care. It only cost £26 pounds but does lots of other useful stuff like remind me when to take my meds.

[Physalis in reply to momist]

Doesn't the Kardia work with bluetooth? I don't agree with you about watches that track heart rate. I've found the readings are virtually the same. We agreed recently that the Kardia and the Apple watch both used electrodes to do an ECG.

[Buffafly in reply to Physalis]

My watch definitely isn’t accurate. If I know when I was in AF I can see the recording looks different - much more even than usual funnily enough but tested against Kardia it isn’t accurate. It uses green light technology which generally isn’t as sensitive as a Kardia - we are talking about a cheap Chinese imitation after all!

[Physalis in reply to Buffafly]

But what watch have you got? My Apple watch uses electrodes like the Kardia for an ECG. For the hr readings it uses the green light on my wrist and, as far as I am concerned it is accurate.

I know cheaper watches are not accurate and before I got my watch I had a wrist monitor which was hopeless at recording high heart rates. Totally useless. If I had not been so mean at the time I might well have got a Kardia!

[Buffafly in reply to Physalis]

Xiaomi Miband 3 - it’s an all singing all dancing fitness band but doesn’t do ECGs of course.

[Physalis in reply to Buffafly]

Yes, about the same price as my wrist monitor!

[momist in reply to Physalis]

Physalis yes, the Kardia 6L uses bluetooth. That's what I said to the OP. The earlier Kardia doesn't though, and therefore has the troubles I described. Regarding watches, yes your £400 Apple watch and £800 iPhone will give accurate readings. The Fitbit range gives accurate heart rates for anything between 60 and 120 bpm. My resting heart rate can be as low as 43bpm due to the bisoprolol, and in AF at 180bpm++ it hasn't a hope. Any watch using the little green lights on the back and a light sensor struggles to read AF for reasons I've listed many times in the past, in other threads. None of that is relevant to the Apple system.

[Physalis in reply to momist]

Oh, I know what you mean about the bisoprolol! When I told the doctor I'd stopped taking it because my hr had gone down to 47, she said she would only worry if it was down to 42 or so. Then, because I'd only been bussed into her because my ECG at the surgery recorded about 157, she wanted me to double the dose. I wasn't having that.

£800 for a iPhone, no way. I told you I was mean! My watch cost me about £400 and my iPhone about £80, I bought it second hand on ebay. It's been brilliant.

[johnMiosh in reply to momist]

The apple and galaxy watches use electrodes for the ecg, but green lights for constant HR monitoring. These are perfect for a single lead ecg, which is all you will need to establish AF. They are not so good for HR monitoring because they only measure the movement of blood. If you are in AF, some beats will not register because there is not enough blood flow. In my case, when exercising a chest monitor read 230, while a wrist monitor read 160. As the wrist monitor gave the reading I expected, I made the false assumption that my chest monitor was failing.

[Physalis]

You might like to read a review here tomsguide.com/uk/reviews/sa...

So ECG, blood pressure monitoring, fall detection and O2 monitoring, presumably day and night because it says "SpO2 sensor can inform breathing disturbances while sleeping, which is a prevalent symptom of sleep apnea." I think that could be useful for detecting whether sleep apnoea is one of the causes of your AFib". Especially if you are one of those people to whom it happens several times a night but who don't wake up enough to realise it is happening. Sanjay Gupta mentioned it in one of his videos.

[Buffafly in reply to Physalis]

Sounds impressive! I thought you had an iWatch though?

[Physalis in reply to Buffafly]

Yes, I do and I wouldn't change it. I don't have a problem with blood pressure or sleep apnoea. I don't really like that type of clock face and it looks big, more like a man's watch but Karendeena wanted something she could use with an Android phone. I think it works with an iPhone too.

[Palpman]

I haven't bought any watch or Kardia device as I understand that they don't recognize AFlutter that I have so they serve no purpose.

However I have read that the latest software for the 6L can recognize AFlutter and some other arrhythmias that was not possible before.

It also has AI that mimics a 12 lead ECG device that no other similar device has.

[Physalis in reply to Palpman]

The watch doesn't tell you you've got AFib if your hr is over 120 but you have no difficulty in recognising it. I think that's true of flutter as well. You can see the pattern clear enough.

If you can't work out what the ECG is showing, the doctor will be able to. Probably not everything, for something more unusual you could well have to use the Kardia 6.