Title | Continuous mHealth Patch Monitoring for the Algorithm-Based Detection of Atrial Fibrillation: Feasibility and Diagnostic Accuracy Study. | ||
Author | Santala, Onni E; Lipponen, Jukka A; Jantti, Helena; Rissanen, Tuomas T; Tarvainen, Mika P; Laitinen, Tomi P; Laitinen, Tiina M; Castren, Maaret; Valiaho, Eemu-Samuli; Rantula, Olli A; Naukkarinen, Noora S; Hartikainen, Juha E K; Halonen, Jari; Martikainen, Tero J | ||
Journal | JMIR Cardio | Publication Year/Month | 2022-Jun |
PMID | 35727618 | PMCID | PMC9257607 |
Affiliation + expend | 1.School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. |
BACKGROUND: The detection of atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major clinical challenge as AF is often paroxysmal and asymptomatic. Novel mobile health (mHealth) technologies could provide a cost-effective and reliable solution for AF screening. However, many of these techniques have not been clinically validated. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and reliability of artificial intelligence (AI) arrhythmia analysis for AF detection with an mHealth patch device designed for personal well-being. METHODS: Patients (N=178) with an AF (n=79, 44%) or sinus rhythm (n=99, 56%) were recruited from the emergency care department. A single-lead, 24-hour, electrocardiogram-based heart rate variability (HRV) measurement was recorded with the mHealth patch device and analyzed with a novel AI arrhythmia analysis software. Simultaneously registered 3-lead electrocardiograms (Holter) served as the gold standard for the final rhythm diagnostics. RESULTS: Of the HRV data produced by the single-lead mHealth patch, 81.5% (3099/3802 hours) were interpretable, and the subject-based median for interpretable HRV data was 99% (25th percentile=77% and 75th percentile=100%). The AI arrhythmia detection algorithm detected AF correctly in all patients in the AF group and suggested the presence of AF in 5 patients in the control group, resulting in a subject-based AF detection accuracy of 97.2%, a sensitivity of 100%, and a specificity of 94.9%. The time-based AF detection accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the AI arrhythmia detection algorithm were 98.7%, 99.6%, and 98.0%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The 24-hour HRV monitoring by the mHealth patch device enabled accurate automatic AF detection. Thus, the wearable mHealth patch device with AI arrhythmia analysis is a novel method for AF screening. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03507335; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03507335.