Afib detection with heartrate chest stap?

A few years ago I had both afib and atrial flutter permanently. I had 3 ablation surgeries and it seems to have sorted it, although I may have had a couple of episodes since, I can’t really feel it other than being run down and my watch giving an elevated heart rate.

I have also been on bisporolol since, which I would like to come off (after speaking to my doctor) but I would also like to monitor what is going on with my heart rhythm if I do feel run down or during exercise just in case. I think when it first started it was induced or triggered by exercise.

It looks like the polar h10 strap can give a pretty accurate ecg, but the polar software isn’t configured to look for irregular rhythms. Does anyone know of an app that can take the readings and look for signs of arrythmia without needing a medical degree to interpret it. Something like “kardia mobile” but using a heart rate strap rather than a crappy hand held device.

Have a look at crickles.casa. It reads your Strava feed and does some HR analysis. 

I think the challenge may be that anything that’s actually good at measuring afib will need to be registered as a medical device, which costs $$$

Loads of info here about smartwatches. Appreciate that doesn’t answer your actual question.

Atrial Fibrillation: A Guide to Wearable ECG Smart Watches 

Mrs a11y’s Apple Watch is what alerted her to Afib in the first place. It’s proving to be very useful in monitoring going forward.

Worth considering if you’re all Apple’d up.

@MSP

just a quickie re coming off bisoprolol.  i came off it after a year of hell. i was unable to exercise whilst on it. it was like doing things with a lid on, or like a pressure cooker, if you get what i mean.

i now take Diltiazem.   exercise is no longer a issue.

I’m interested to see what suggestions come out here. I have had some arrhythmia issues which got quite bad a few years ago. I’m off the meds now, but I feel like it’s slowly coming back and like the o.p I spend a lot of time feeling run down and some rides my heart rate is high and impossible to keep down, where others I feel great and cruise up easier climbs 15bpm slower than other time whilst being a gear or even 2 higher.

It would be good to be able to monitor things myself.

Does anyone know if the apple watch can detect Atrial Tachycardia as well?

I have one of these after some heart arrythmia issues over the past couple of years

https://uk.fourthfrontier.com

Cardiologist that did an ablation I had was happy to look at the ecgs it produces.

Much better than Kardia as you can run the traces for hours just like a holter monitor.

Not cheap but while I was suffering issues it was invaluable to be able to capture traces if I felt anything weird going on.

Ps it will detect arrythmia and flag it in the trace but won’t give you a diagnosis of what type of arrhythmia.
Wasn’t aware the polar can also do ecgs – worth knowing.

Looks like the new polar vantage V3 does limited ecg testing, but it is not constant monitoring like the apple watch

A mate was forwarned of a heart attack via his chest strap. Proper fit & rapid rider as well.  Let me find his post

Edit Facebook post here

On android there are a couple of ecg apps that plot ecg from live h10 readings

Ecglogger
Polarsensor logger

Both written by Finns using Polar’s sdk

Will give them a go in the morning. Not sure they’ll flag any issues tho, but at least a trace you can share

A mate was forwarned of a heart attack via his chest strap. Proper fit & rapid rider as well.  Let me find his post

be interested to know what ‘odd numbers’ he is referring to? Ie did his heart rate shoot through the roof, drop low etc?

I remember I use to keep getting odd numbers with various chest straps but felt just fine. In the end I used two devices at same time for a few rides to see if it was an actual issue, and if one looked off I’d check the other. It was always a device issues. Nowadays if I get a random hr reading I just ignore, and assume it’s just the device playing up. 

be interested to know what ‘odd numbers’ he is referring to? Ie did his heart rate shoot through the roof, drop low etc?

Pedalling away and HR reading on Garmin dropped really low, he felt ok so thought it was just dodgy kit at first.

Lifepak 15

I’ve got a Withings Scanwatch that detects fib and does basic ecg.

Seem a good solution if you don’t want to wear a chest strap all day

I like it as it looks like a normal watch too, although I admittedly don’t wear it too often.

I’ve been on 2.5mg Bisoprolol for 15 years. My HR when cycling gets to 135bpm relatively quickly and I’m blowing excessively to get it much higher. Put a lot of it down to weight but maybe I should rethink after reading the comments above.

Thanks OP – nothing helpful to contribute, but interested for the same reasons as outlined in your original post.

Parox. Afib diagnosed a few months ago, and waiting for yet more tests prior to a decision on ablation surgery, would be helpful to have something that does a better job than my fairly basic Garmin vivoactive watch.

Android user, so apple watch is less helpful for me.

keep getting odd numbers with various chest straps but felt just fine. In the end I used two devices at same time for a few rides to see if it was an actual issue, and if one looked off I’d check the other. It was always a device issues

As scotroutes mentions, crickles.casa is useful. It will flag any unususal sessions, and say of the strap is likely at fault.
It also provides you with an arrhythmia risk score over time versus a larger population.
Don’t think it diagnoses Afib with certainty, but suggests seeing a medic if you are concerned

Pedalling away and HR reading on Garmin dropped really low, he felt ok so thought it was just dodgy kit at first.

I get that when the Polar chest strap slips a bit, just have re-adjust it and the numbers go back up….