Previously, it was reported that Mayo Clinic had developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm powered by Apple Watch ECG app to detect ventricular dysfunction or weak heart pump condition.
A new study based on the AI algorithm reveals that Apple Watch ECG app can lead to the early detection of another heat disorder, ventricular dysfunction which is an asymptotic, life-threatening condition that affects up to 3% of people worldwide and 9% of people over 60 years old.
The left ventricle is primarily responsible for pumping oxygen to your body’s vital organs. Left Ventricular dysfunction of the heart is usually followed by congestive heart failure that can lead to a multitude of cardiac disorders.
One of the problems is that patients with cardiac dysfunction are often undiagnosed because people often don’t show symptoms (asymptomatic.) It is, therefore, important to diagnose any problems with the left ventricle as early as possible.
Groundbreaking tech powered by Apple Watch ECG app leads to early detection of ventricular dysfunction
For the study, Mayo Clinic collected 125,610 Apple Watch ECGs sent by 2454 patients from the United States and 11 other countries from August 2021 to February 2022.
Their data was “scrubbed and processed” via a proprietary AI algorithm developed by the researchers which “detected patients with low EF (ejection fraction) with an area under the curve of 0.885 (95% confidence interval 0.823–0.946) and 0.881 (0.815–0.947), using the mean prediction within a 30-d window or the closest ECG relative to the echocardiogram that determined the EF, respectively.”
As heart failure impacts 26 million people worldwide, the discovery that an Apple Watch ECG acquired in a nonclinical environment can detect cardiac dysfunction is groundbreaking. MyHealthyApple states:
These findings indicate that consumer-watch ECGs acquired in nonclinical environments can identify patients with cardiac dysfunction, a potentially life-threatening and often asymptomatic condition. Another inference is that the potential of smartwatches to assist with conducting remote digital health studies is just in the beginning phases.
The new AI developed by Mayo Clinic is under FDA review. You can find the complete study and findings published in Nature Medicine.
