Apple Watch: its ECG would be more powerful than a medical patch

Apple conducts numerous health studies. One of them, the results of which were recently published, looked at the watch's ability to detect various cardiac pathologies. Because the Apple Watch is capable of monitoring the regularity of the heart rhythm precisely thanks to an electrocardiogram, since the Series 4 model. This allows the user to be alerted in the event of an irregular heartbeat which could be a sign of a heart condition called atrial fibrillation, potentially fatal if untreated.

But the new study showed that the Apple Watch is capable ofdo better than a medical ECG patch. Indeed, comparing participants with an ECG patch and participants with an Apple Watch, the scientists realized that, in cases where the ECG patch had not detected atrial fibrillation, it could happen that the watch detected a pulse. irregular, which then led to the detection of an underlying pathology, ventricular arrhythmia or atrial arrhythmia,in 40% of cases.

In 60% of cases, the irregular pulse detected by the Apple Watch did not have an organic cause.

Heart disorders, particularly atrial fibrillation, affect 1% of the French population, with a much higher prevalence in people over 80% (source: medical research foundation). In addition, according to Health Insurance, atrial fibrillation causes 20 to 30% of strokes in France.

If the Apple Watch can cause undue concern in the event of false positives, it is significantly capable, according to this new study, of easily detecting, at home and without complex medical equipment, several potentially fatal cardiac pathologies.

In addition, future generations of the watch should enable new advances in health. Indeed, if the latest iteration of the watch, Series 7, still unavailable to date, does not bring major changes compared to the Series, the Series 8 expected for 2022could integrate one of these three new sensors: body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar,as seen there.

Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.