Smartwatch detection of ventricular tachycardia: Case series
Abstract
Introduction Worldwide sales of wearable smartwatches have grown at an annual rate exceeding 20%, with 500 million connected devices currently active in 2020 and projected to exceed 1 billion by 2022. The integration of photoplethysmographic (PPG) sensors into smartwatches has accelerated widespread community-based heart rate monitoring. More recent versions of smartwatches combine the PPG sensor—which can detect pulse rate and regularity only—with an actual 1-lead electrocardiogram that allows the recording of lead I. These features, in combination with rhythm analysis algorithms within the device itself, provide explicit results directly to the consumer. This has created an emerging paradigm in population-based heart rhythm monitoring. Most notably, the Apple Heart Study demonstrated the ability of PPG technology to screen an asymptomatic population for occult atrial fibrillation, with at least theoretic implications for downstream treatment. To date, however, there is a paucity of scientific evidence to support the use of wearable devices for the detection of either symptomatic or malignant arrhythmias. Only 1 previous report has documented the identification of ventricular tachycardia (VT) using an Apple Watch. Herein, we describe 2 cases of symptomatic VT diagnosed using smartwatch technology and confirmed during subsequent electrophysiologic evaluation. To our knowledge, there is no clinical guideline focused on the interpretation and suggested provider actions for…
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