Smartwatches with both PPG and ECG functionality improve the detection of atrial fibrillation in comparison with standard care.
Researchers from Amsterdam UMC have analyzed the data from 437 patients and detected heart arrhythmia four times more often in those who wore an Apple Watch.
These results are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Research led by Winter and conducted by Van Steijn provided 219 patients over the age of 65 and at elevated stroke risk with an Apple Watch, while 218 patients received standard care. Patients were monitored for six months, with smartwatch users wearing the watch for 12 hours a day.
We saw that after six months we diagnosed and treated 21 patients in the group wearing the smartwatch, of whom 57% were asymptomatic.
This was against just five diagnoses in the group receiving standard care, all of whom experienced symptoms.
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