The latest clinical validation study on the AliveCor Kardia Mobile ECG has just been published in The Lancet. The study was funded by research awards from Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland (CHSS) and the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
Whilst previous clinical studies have concentrated on the AliveCor’s use to detect Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) in Community Pharmacy and Primary Care settings this latest multi-centre trial looked at patients presenting to Accident and Emergency Departments with palpitations and pre-syncope but with no obvious cause at their initial consultation.
The multi-centre, randomised controlled trial included 243 patients recruited over an 18 month period from 10 prestigious centres across the UK including Hospitals in Edinburgh, Reading, London, Exeter, Plymouth, Chesterfield, Leicester and Nottingham.
What was the problem the researchers identified?
It is estimated that Palpitations and pre-syncope are together responsible for 300,000 annual Accident and Emergency Department attendances in the United Kingdom (UK) alone. However diagnosis of the underlying rhythm is difficult as many patients are fully recovered by the time they attend Hospital and their ECG is normal.
What was the outcome?
Use of the AliveCor Kardia Mobile ECG smartphone-based event recorder in Accident and Emergency units was five times more effective at detecting heart rhythm problems than standard tests and should be used in all Accident and Emergency units, researchers say.
Use of the Kardia Mobile ECG also increased the number of patients diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia.
The Study participation survey and questionnaire demonstrated the Kardia Mobile was well received and liked by patients with the majority agreeing or strongly agreeing the Kardia Mobile was easy to use.
The £99 Kardia Mobile ECG recorder also cut the cost of diagnosis by more than £900 per patient and cut the time taken to diagnose by more than three weeks.
A copy of the paper can be accessed using the following link
M.J. Reed, N.R. Grubb, C.C. Lang, et al., Multi-centre Randomised Controlled Trial of a Smartphone-based Event Recorder Alongside Standard Car…, , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2019.02.005
