At the age of 12, Connor Hines began experiencing periodic symptoms of a rapid heartbeat, but doctors had a hard time pinpointing the problem.
Connor's heart monitor in his hand was so distracting that his arrhythmia only occurred every few months — too often to catch.
Connor's doctor thought he might know what the problem was, but he wanted to be sure. So, he did what more and more cardiologists were doing — he asked Connor to put on his mom's watch-style smart device.
Researchers report that cardiologists are increasingly using smartwatches to help diagnose heart problems in children.
A review of medical records by the Children's Health Center at Stanford Medical School found that 41 young patients had had cardiac arrhythmias detected by smartwatches, confirmed by a new study published in the Journal of Communications Medicine.
Of this group of children, 18 used their smartwatches to collect ECG data, while between 2018 and 2022, 23 received fast-heartbeat alert notifications from their smartwatches.
Researchers say the readings prompt doctors to perform medical tests. Of the children examined, 29 were diagnosed with new arrhythmias. In 10 children, the smartwatch diagnosed arrhythmias that were not detected by traditional monitoring methods.
We were surprised that standard monitoring failed to detect arrhythmias and that the watch could detect this. Scott Seresnack, a senior fellow at pediatric cardiologists at Stanford Medical School, said. "It's amazing to see how new technology can really make a difference in patient care. ”
A "terrible" question.
Ceresnak is a cardiologist at Connor, and Connor is one of the children in the new study.
At the basketball tryouts, he had another anomaly," recalled Amy Heintz, Connor's mom, "and I put the watch on him and emailed Dr. Cerasnak a lot of the capture of his heartbeat." ”
The information on the watch confirmed Cresnak's suspicion that Connor had supraventricular tachycardia, an abnormally fast heart rhythm caused by a short circuit in the heart's electrical activity.
Most children with arrhythmias have the same condition as Connor, Carenak said.
These arrhythmias aren't life-threatening, but they can make a child feel terrible," Ceresnak said in a Stanford University press release. "They can be problematic and scary, and it would be very helpful if wearables could help us figure out the cause of this arrhythmia. ”
This problem can usually be solved with a medical procedure called catheter ablation. During catheter ablation, doctors address electrical conduction abnormalities by destroying a small, precise and targeted area of the heart, known as the cells of the heart.
Connor successfully underwent catheter ablation** and is now 15 years old playing for his high school basketball team in Menlo Park, California.
An imperceptible problem.
The study also found that the 73 patients recorded in the medical records did not notice any heart rhythm problems using the smartwatch. In the end, they did not receive any diagnosis.
Many children have palpitations and the weird feeling of a 'plopping' heart, but the vast majority of children don't have a medical arrhythmia," Seresnek said. "In the future, I think this technology might help us rule out any serious problems. ”
Cersnak and his colleagues point out that traditional cardiac diagnostic equipment is not ideal for children.
Researchers say that a few decades ago, children had to carry around a small smartphone device connected to five electrodes attached to a child's chest.
Today's children can wear a patch that fits to their chest and has built-in sensors to monitor their heartbeat, but sometimes it falls off or is stimulated** early.
Researchers say that even weeks of monitoring may not necessarily catch heart arrhythmias because it is so undesirable that children may be safe and sound throughout the period.
Make the device child-friendly.
The researchers note that smartwatches are still not a completely ideal solution for children.
Existing smartwatch algorithms are based on adult heartbeat patterns and are not optimized for children. Children's hearts beat faster than adults, and there are different types of arrhythmias than adults.
However, the researchers say the article shows the potential of using existing smartwatch technology to help detect arrhythmias in children, and recommends the development of easy-to-understand heart tracking algorithms for children.
Cerennak and his team plan to conduct a study to further evaluate how effective the Apple Watch can be in detecting heart problems in children. This study is only open to patients with pediatric heart disease at Stanford Medical Children's Health.
The wearable market is rapidly evolving, and our kids are going to use it," CeraSNAK said, "We want to make sure that the data that we get from these devices is reliable and accurate for kids." In the future, we want to help develop pediatric algorithms specifically for monitoring heart rhythms. ”
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The Cleveland Clinic has more information about heart rate monitors.
*: Stanford Medical School press release, December 13, 2023.
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