Anybody tried Alivecor heart monitor ?

[Mgs333]

I suffer from night time palpitations which I have had for over 4 years now. I have has every test under the sun including heart scans, ecg's, angiogram and calcium scoring and much more. The general opinion from my consultant is that I have benign PVC'S but 3 different halter monitors have proved inconclusive. They are now suggesting I buy a Alivecor machine which is around £130. It works my placing your finger tips on sensors and basically waiting for a palpitation so it can be recorded. .....But I get these at night and they wake me up ! so can how this work for me ? I can't hold this in bed and just wait, this is going to cause more stress and palps...........AAHHHHHH !!

[Hidden]

Dear Mgs333

I purchased an AliveCor heart monitor a few months ago and was quickly diagnosed with continuous Atrial fibrillation, for which I am now awaiting an operation.

This diagnosis was done by sending the ECG diagrams produced by the AliveCor monitor as email attachments directly to my heart specialist, via my smartphone. In other words : my cardiologist was able to make a diagnosis without seeing me in person and without my having to go to hospital to have an ECG monitor fitted to my chest- all during the Covid-19 pandemic.

[Mgs333 in reply to Hidden]

Yes but as I understand it you have to hold it so it can record your heart but I only get palps during the night when I'me lying down when they wake me up, my heart actually jumps in my chest. I don't get anything during the day or even when I exercise at the gym....its very weird and totally frustrating...

[Hidden in reply to Mgs333]

Well, the monitor that I use is placed on my bare left leg with both sets of index and middle fingers on the top of the device and reads the rhythms for 30 seconds. I generally use it during intrusive palpitations, but taking a reading from time to time whether I'm having palpitations or not tells my cardiologist what's going on during periods of 'normality'.

It then uploads to my email account on my smartphone and then I can choose to send it whenever I wish. So if you keep the AliveCor device and your smartphone beside your bed and use it when the palpitations wake you it should take, overall, a couple of minutes.

These arrhythmias are indeed weird, but I also had them during the day and didn't even know it until I wore an ECG strap all day (before lockdown).