new Apple Watch History App

[mjm1971]

hi

Anyone else using the Apple Watch History app ?

im 8 weeks post my 2nd ablation and I take an ECG on my watch every morning and every night and sometimes during the day

I’ve recorded 10 episodes of AF in the last 4 weeks none of which lasted longer than 30minutes

yet the new App on the Apple Watch gives me a weekly history stating I’ve been in AF 35% of the time over the last 2 weeks .

Very disappointing if this new app can be relied on ??

[Buffafly]

Did you notice the episodes without using the ECG? I had a monitor for a week, was disappointed that I had no AF during the time but my report came back as ‘frequent episodes of AF’. Which explained why I hadn’t been feeling great. But if you feel ok put the watch in a deep dark hole and stop ‘bee watching’ 🙂

[BobD Volunteer]

How are you actually feeling? Why not lock the thing away and get on with life? You are still in the recovery period (at least six months) and many people are still improving a year later.

[Autumn_Leaves]

I’ve used this option for the past two weeks and it’s given me ‘2% or less’ today and last week. I’ve had my usual ‘high ectopic burden’ which I’m constantly aware of but I’m not aware of any AF in that time. I don’t know whether the ‘2% or less’ means some AF episodes were picked up or none at all. I’m still trying to decide if it’s actually useful or what to do with the information generated. I have paroxysmal AF.

[mjm1971]

I get everyone says don’t wear the watch as I’m in Blanking period but my main issue is as follows .

I’m only 51 : I don’t have massive symptoms when I’m in AF , lucky I appreciate .

So unless I track it as I do I could go in and out of AF and not know and then my stroke risk is at large and I have no protection .

I have no other co morbidities so I’m only a 1 on CHADS etc . Therefore they won’t prescribe me anticoagulants.

I’m paranoid re the stroke because my mum had AF and then had a stroke

Yes she had a TIA before and yes she was 67 when she had the stroke but never smoked or drank and was fit as a fiddle and on warfarin when we shad stroke .

So my mental issue is re having a stroke more than having the AF if that makes any sense

[Physalis]

It's a bit like the Stand hours feature. I couldn't understand this, I wasn't standing up for 13 hours. However, my son explained it to me, it was how many hours I actually stood up in regardless of how long.

[mjm1971 in reply to Physalis]

hi Physalis

It’s telling me I’m in AF 35% of the time ?

But surely it’s not monitoring every minute and can only take periodic readings .

I don’t know and I’ve tried researching how it takes the readings and comes up with the stat but I can’t find info anywhere 🤷‍♂️

[Physalis]

It's probably just taking periodic readings as you say. You can scroll back through your heart rates which are taken every few minutes and see yourself when you are in AF. It takes a lot of scrolling!

[mjm1971 in reply to Physalis]

Not easy for me as my HR doesn’t go above 120 even if in AF , so even me walking goes up to 120 so no way of knowing just from checking HR if in AF or not

Complicated life this AF isn’t it lol

[Autumn_Leaves in reply to Physalis]

How would you know if you were in AF by scrolling through the HR records?

[Physalis in reply to Autumn_Leaves]

With me it would show up when my hr went up to around 140 and it stayed like that for a day or so. It would then very abruptly go down again to around about 60.

[Autumn_Leaves in reply to Physalis]

I see. I looked at mine and I checked the high HR readings on the Hour recordings and noticed these were what I thought were “blips” that are frequently reported by many Apple Watch users. But of course, some AF episodes can be very short so that begs the question: an artefact or a very short episode of AF? It’s not possible to know especially retrospectively. The other thing I’ve noticed is crazy peaks in HRV. I know this increases when I’m having a lot of ectopics but again, are these peaks frequent ectopics or AF? I have ectopics all day long, BTW. I like that I can take an on-the-spot reading with the ECG app, and it does seem to reliably identify AF as it happens and it clearly picks up ectopics, but I’m still unsure about all the other AF features.

[Physalis in reply to Autumn_Leaves]

Looking at the ones on the hour is ok. I sometimes look at them and they don't really vary much from week to week, there is the odd high of about 100 and a low of 45.

I don't have AF now but, all the time I did, I used to take an ECG every 4 hours and put the results on a spreadsheet. It showed very clearly what was going on. It was only after I had had my ablation that I realised I could have just looked at the daily hr list and picked the AF start and stop points up from there.

I was recording a lot of data from the watch every day but after my hip replacement in June that all went by the board and I haven't started it up again. The hr variability went from very low to over 100, I never took much notice of it. I did notice at one point the average was going up slightly month on month and that was a mystery to me.

Now I use my Apple watch mainly for the timer.

[Autumn_Leaves in reply to Physalis]

Thanks. That’s very interesting. I bought mine a couple of years before AF though the ectopics were becoming increasingly troubling and I thought the ECG would be useful. But it was the watch that picked up my first episode, and least that I had been aware of. I use the timers a lot too, but as I joke to my husband, it also tells the time!