Accuracy of the Apple Watch 4 to Measure Heart Rate in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation

• Published in: IEEE journal of translational engineering in health and medicine Vol. 8; pp. 1 - 4
• Main Authors: Seshadri, Dhruv R., Bittel, Barb, Browsky, Dalton, Houghtaling, Penny, Drummond, Colin K., Desai, Milind, Gillinov, A. Marc
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.01.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: accuracy; Apple Watch; Atrial fibrillation; Biomedical monitoring; Cardiac arrhythmia; cardiac arrhythmias; clinical trial; Correlation analysis; Correlation coefficients; Electrocardiography; Fibrillation; Heart rate; Monitoring; Smartwatches; Telemetry; Time measurement; Wearable sensors; Wearable technology; Wrist; clinical trial; atrial fibrillation; heart rate; Apple Watch; accuracy; cardiac arrhythmias; Wearable sensors
• ISSN: 2168-2372; 2168-2372
• DOI: 10.1109/JTEHM.2019.2950397

Background Wearable wrist-monitors offer an unobtrusive way to acquire heart rate data in an efficient manner. Previous work in this field has focused on studying healthy subjects during exercise but has yet to assess the efficacy of these devices in patients suffering from common cardiac arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation. Objective The objective of this pilot study was to assess the accuracy of the Apple Watch heart rate monitor in fifty patients experiencing atrial fibrillation compared to telemetry. Results Results from this pilot clinical study demonstrated a correlation coefficient of 0.7 between all readings on the Apple Watch and telemetry. Furthermore, the Apple Watch assessed heart rate more accurately in patients who were in atrial fibrillation than in those that were not (rc = 0.86, patients in AF, vs. rc = 0.64, patients not in AF). Clinical Impact The presented data from this pilot study suggests that caution should be noted before using the Apple Watch 4 wearable wrist monitor to monitor heart rate in patients with cardiac arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation.