How often does kardia get it wrong

[Deltrot53]

hi after feeling a run of ectopic beats I took an ecg with my kardia 6L which showed AF I’ve never had this before it usually says normal sinus rhythm with premature ventricular contractions I took another one a minute or sa after again showed AF this sent me into a bit of a panic and long story short went to A&E had an ecg then saw a doctor who said the ecg was normal sinus rhythm with pvc’s I showed her my kardia ecg and she said it wasn’t AF but looked like Nsr with pvc so now I’m a bit dubious about using my kardia which I thought would be very reliable

[BobD Volunteer]

All these things can be useful but you must treat them as an aid not a gospel and avoid getting hung up on results which as you have discovered can be counter productive and produce anxiety in spades if you aren't careful .

[Deltrot53 in reply to BobD]

Thanks for the sound advice a stressful lesson learned

[mjames1]

The Kardia is reliable. You just have to understand the limitations of the AI interpretations. There are similar limitations even with a 12 lead at your doctors office. At this point in time, a good EP can read an ECG better than the machine.

I've also gotten a few false positive afib determinations when I had too many PAC's. But with experience I've learned to distinguish one from the other.

The important thing with Kardia is that it generates a medical grade EKG, which you can either learn to read yourself or have a good EP read it for you. I look at the AI aspect as window dressing, which is usually correct, but sometimes not.

Jim

[Deltrot53 in reply to mjames1]

Thank you for your reply I think I’ll try to learn to read the ecg properly rather than just looking at the result

[green4par]

I had exactly the same problem with the Kardia - I do not pay for their "premium" service. My EP had told me, following my ablation that my heart rate appeared to be sinus rhythm, but with pvcs. I've had bradycardia all my life, and I had to take amiodarone during the blanking period which brought my resting rate into the low 30s, and I had pvcs, but nothing concerning, and definitely not afib according to my EP. After going off amiodarone, I still have a few pvcs with sinus rhythm . Kardia still reports afib. EP had warned this may happen with apple watch, which is why I got the Kardia. Apple watch will at least say "inconclusive", but now I mostly get sinus rhythm on apple watch.

[Debjimmay in reply to green4par]

I have the same issue with the Kardia and I pay for the premium. I’ve sent in three readings of Afib for a cardiologist to review, and the report comes back as PACs, and not Aib. I actually believe my Apple Watch is more accurate because it very rarely comes up Afib so when it does, I’m more apt to take my Apple Watch more seriously than I do the Kardia.

[Deltrot53 in reply to Debjimmay]

I also pay for the premium service just a bit frustrating and worrisome when it says AF and it’s not

[Deltrot53 in reply to green4par]

I’m waiting for the results from a 48hr holter monitor I had a couple of weeks ago so hopefully that’ll give me more information