Apple Watch Saved 80-Year-Old's Life, Detects Heart Condition That Hospital Machine Missed
An 80-year old woman in Germany was saved by Apple Watch¡¯s ECG feature that uncovered her heart condition.
When we think of some of Apple¡¯s most successful devices, after the iPhone, Apple Watch surely comes to our mind.
Reuters
In the past few years, it has managed to save countless lives, by being one step ahead in noticing (either through its ECG feature or through its heart-rate monitor) if the wearer is in any kind of trauma and contact emergency services if things aren¡¯t normal, without the wearer even touching the screen.
And now, the Apple Watch has saved the life of an elderly woman, in a hospital.
Reported first by IANS, An 80-year old woman in Germany was saved by Apple Watch¡¯s ECG feature that uncovered her heart condition that was actually missed by the hospital¡¯s medical-grade ECG machine during diagnosis.
This was published in the form of a study by Oxford University researchers in the European Heart Journal. The woman was admitted to the University Medical Centre, Mainz of Johannes Gutenberg University where doctors described her condition as ¡®typical angina symptoms¡¯.
The patient had also experienced two presyncopy episodes -- a medical condition when a person loses consciousness due to reduced blood flowing to the brain.
Apple/ Reuters
While the investigation of the problem, they also performed an initial 12-channel ECG. the test didn¡¯t find any evidence for ischaemia which is when there are restrictions in the blood vessels that obstruct the supply of blood.
Later, the patient showed doctors the result of ECG tests on her Apple Watch that showed ¡®tracings with marked ST-segment depression¡¯. In that test, doctors did notice evidence of myocardial ischemia. The patient was then transferred to the catheterization lab.
Authors state, "Accordingly, the patient was treated with coronary artery stenting and left the hospital a day later. 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."
