Apple watch detected a serious heart condition of an 80-year-old German woman where a hospital-grade Electrocardiogram shows nothing in the scan according to report.
She reportedly complained about light-headedness and chest pain with an irregular pulse.
While the results by Chest Pain Unit of the hospital came normal after the electrocardiogram test, the patient showed Apple Watch ECG recordings that indicated severe coronary ischemia.
Coronary ischemia is a medical term for not having enough blood through the coronary arteries. Coronary ischemia is linked to heart disease as well as heart attacks.
As a result, the patient underwent a heart catheterization which showed "a severe coronary artery disease such as the main stem stenosis and a bifurcation lesion involving the left anterior descending artery."
With Balloon angioplasty and the use of a stent, the patient was successfully treated and discharged two days later without any symptoms and in good condition.
The cardiologists wrote in their report, "The development of smart technologies paves the way for new diagnostic possibilities. In the case of the Apple watch, after the mobile application is installed, the records an ECG when a finger is placed on the watch’s digital crown. A 30-s tracing is stored in a PDF file that can be retrieved from the application. Thus, the Apple watch may be used not only to detect atrial fibrillation or atrioventricular-conduction disturbances but also to detect myocardial ischemia. An apple a day may keep myocardial infarction away."
The Apple Watch Series 6 is also expected to be equipped with a pulse oximeter -This measures the oxygen saturation level of a patient and a native sleep-tracking app which is something that has been on Apple Watch users' wish lists for quite a while.
Image credits: Unsplash/Andres Urena
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