Your PHONE could detect a life-threatening heart defect that triggers stroke

These days there are apps for pretty much everything, from weight loss to brain training and dating.

But, now scientists say your smartphone could prove life-saving, as they reveal an app that can detect a potentially life-threatening heart problem.

Linked up to a hand-held wireless lead heart monitor (ECG), the app could feasibly be used to test for an irregular heart rate.

Also known as atrial fibrillation, or AF for short, it is a potentially fatal condition, experts warn.

This new method is cheap and accessible and could prove very useful for mass screening.

This is vital given the condition is silent in around two thirds of cases, say researchers.

AF is linked to a heightened risk of stroke, heart failure and death.

And, its prevalence is predicted to triple in the US by 2050, because it is increasingly more common after the age of 65.

However, appropriate treatment can cut the risk of a stroke by up to 70 per cent.

Researchers tested more than 13,000 adults in Hong Kong for AF between May 2014 and April 2015, using a smartphone app and hand-held monitor.

The test, which lasts 30 seconds, picked up 101 cases of AF that had not been diagnosed before.

In two thirds of these cases, the patient showed no signs or symptoms of the illness.

But, their combined risk scores topped three, suggesting that they would have benefited from treatment, the researchers noted.

Almost one in 10 of the people tested had AF – reflecting the general prevalence in developed countries.

The result from the app was only unable to be read in 56 cases (0.4 per cent).

The researchers found increasing age, being male, weight and a history of heart disease or surgery and peripheral vascular disease were all factors that predicted the condition.

Current guidelines recommend opportunistic screening for AF.

But, the researchers suggest that their findings indicate that mass screening might instead be feasible.

“A systematic population-based ECG screening for AF, instead of an opportunistic approach, as recommend by the current guidelines, may lead to a reduction in the incidence of stroke in the community,” the researchers conclude, advocating the need for a well designed clinical trial to test this out.

In a linked editorial by Swedish cardiologists, Drs Emma Svennberg and Engdahl, from the Karolinska Institute and Gothenburg University, respectively, agree the findings are important.

A systematic population-based ECG screening for AF, instead of an opportunistic approach, as recommend by the current guidelines, may lead to a reduction in the incidence of stroke in the community

Study authors

But, they call for caution.

Mass screening programmes for AF have not achieved coverage of more than 50 per cent when targeted at those most at risk – uptake that is lower than most other established screening programmes, such as for breast cancer.

And while the results are promising, “much more data on the optimal mode and duration of ECG recording are needed”.

They go on to say that a major drawback of the research is the lack of data on the proportion of people who received appropriate medication (anticoagulants) after their test, pointing out that screening alone does not afford protection against the risk of stroke.

“In order to relieve both patients and society from the consequences of untreated AF, we believe and hope that AF screening in risk groups will be a part of the standard healthcare in many countries in the near future,” they write.

“Besides, isn’t it encouraging that we can use our smartphones to search for other things than Pokémons?” they add.

The new findings are published online in the journal Heart.