At-home ECGs will detect early heart issues and save thousands, say doctors
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Colour-coded output from smartwatch device would be easy for public to read. They remain some of the most complex diagnostic procedures carried out by doctors. To take an electrocardiogram, or ECG, they first have to attach 10 or more electrodes to a patient’s chest, arms and legs to measure the heart’s electrical activity. Then, once these signals have been recorded, a cardiologist has to interpret them to determine if a person has a particular heart ailment.
It is a life-saving technology – but a complicated, expensive one. However, UK scientists now believe they could soon overcome these limitations by developing devices which will allow patients to take their own detailed ECGs at home and be provided with easily interpreted diagnoses about the state of their hearts.
Results should then make it easier and quicker to make early diagnoses of potentially fatal cardiac conditions and save thousands of lives by intervening at early stages of an illness. “There are smartwatches that will take ECGs at present, but they provide only minimal information,” said Prof Caroline Jay, of Manchester University. “We are taking this data, and working on software applications that will allow a person to get a much more detailed picture of the state of their heart, and potentially flag life-threatening conditions to them.”.
An ECG records the electrical activity of a person’s heart as it beats and pumps blood round the body. These signals provide vital information that indicates if a patient is at risk of a heart attack or is suffering from thickening of cardiac blood vessels or other life-threatening conditions.
