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The Apple Watch may be useful for diagnosing cardiac circulatory disorders. A team of cardiologists from the University Clinic Mainz reports on an 80-year-old patient who presented with typical symptoms of coronary heart disease in the breast pain unit of the clinic. A 12-lead ECG created on site and a blood test were normal.
Watch EKG provided evidence of cardiac circulatory disorder
However, the ECG recordings previously made by the patient herself using the smartwatch had shown "pronounced reductions in the so-called ST segment" and thus provided information on a severe cardiac circulatory disorder, explain the doctors in the journal European Heart Journal.
A cardiac catheter then confirmed the acute heart disease, "which could easily have led to a heart attack". The "almost closed coronary arteries of the patient were stretched with a balloon and supplied with stents", the elderly woman was released two days later, according to a message from the Mainz University Medical Center. It is probably the first case in which a cardiac circulatory disorder could be diagnosed with the EKG app. The cardiologists conclude that the possibility of grasping something like this on the wrist could help to prevent heart attacks – especially since it was easy for the elderly woman to operate.
Apple Watch warns of an irregular heartbeat
Apple introduced the EKG app with the Series 4 of the Apple Watch, and it has also been available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other European countries for a year. The watch has an electrical sensor on the underside of the case as well as a new electrode integrated into the outside of the crown – a 30-second 1-lead ECG can be made at any time and saved as a PDF.
