Category: ECG/EKG Applications

Atrial fibrillation is a relatively common clinical persistent arrhythmia, the heartbeat is fast or slow, and irregular. Although the symptoms of atrial fibrillation are mild, they are very dangerous. Compared with the general population, the incidence of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation is nearly 5 times higher. At present, atrial fibrillation has become the third cardiovascular disease after hypertension and coronary heart disease. So, how can we prevent atrial fibrillation in our daily life?

1. Treatment of underlying diseases

(1) Common causes of atrial fibrillation include: basic heart diseases, such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, rheumatic heart disease, pulmonary heart disease, cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, congenital heart disease, etc.; endocrine diseases, such as diabetes.

(2) Active treatment of underlying diseases that may lead to atrial fibrillation.

2. Keep a good attitude

(1) Psycho-neurological factors, which are an important factor leading to atrial fibrillation, and are also very easy to ignore.

(2) Managing emotions and stress is important for atrial fibrillation management. Stress and tension can exacerbate abnormal heartbeats and make the heart more sensitive, possibly triggering atrial fibrillation.

(3) To maintain a good state of mind, avoid violent fluctuations in emotions, learn to control your emotions, and a peaceful mind can reduce the excessive fluctuation of heartbeat.

3. lifestyle attention

(1) Overweight and obesity are independent risk factors for atrial fibrillation. It is estimated that 18% of atrial fibrillation cases could be prevented if everyone reached their ideal weight.

(2) People who drink excessively for a long time have an increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation. Therefore, it is necessary to abstain from alcohol to prevent atrial fibrillation.

(3) The risk of developing atrial fibrillation in people who are smoking is twice that of those who have never smoked, and smoking cessation can reduce the risk of developing atrial fibrillation.

(4) Limit or avoid long-term use of caffeine-containing substances such as tea, coffee, and cola, so try to quit drinking, smoking, coffee, and strong tea.

(5) Try to avoid taking some over-the-counter medicines for a long time, and use some medicines for cough or cold with caution, because these medicines may contain irritants, which may easily trigger irregular heart rhythms. Before taking these medicines, you should ask your doctor or read the instructions carefully. .

(6) Because insomnia is easy to induce atrial fibrillation, the usual work and rest habits should have a reasonable cycle, and it is best to have a regular sleep time.

4. Regular physical examination

Regular physical examinations, especially ECG examinations, often check your pulse and heart rate, and keep abreast of your own heart rate and rhythm changes, so as to have a good understanding of your physical condition and try to prevent diseases before they occur.

Plus1Health has an ECG recorder that can monitor heart rhythm, screen for atrial fibrillation, and issue ECG reports in a timely manner. It can be remotely monitored at home, easy to carry, and easy to operate. There is also a free app for atrial fibrillation—”AFibCheck“, which can be downloaded and used by searching in the mobile app store, and the operation is simple and convenient.

Chronic disease is the abbreviation of chronic non-infectious disease. It mainly includes a group of diseases represented by lifestyle and environmental risk factors, including tumors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Although the etiology of chronic diseases is complex or unclear, most diseases are preventable and controllable. Chronic diseases have high morbidity, disability and die rates in the population, consume social resources seriously, and endanger the health of the labor force. Therefore, the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases is particularly important.

Benign cardiac tumors can be detected by electrocardiography, and it is found that the myocardial damage is left atrial hypertrophy. Through echocardiography, abnormal echo signals can be seen in the cardiac cavity, and cardiac space-occupying, benign cardiac tumors can be found by magnetic resonance, chest CT, etc. The effect of general surgery is better. For smaller tumors, dynamic observation can be performed, and there are no obvious clinical symptoms, so special treatment can be temporarily not required.

For cardiovascular disease, the basic test is an electrocardiogram. However, in the early stage of coronary heart disease, the electrocardiogram often has no obvious changes. When a history of coronary heart disease is highly suspected, coronary angiography is required, which is the gold standard for the diagnosis of coronary heart disease. In the case of acute myocardial infarction and other diseases, ECG, myocardial enzyme spectrum, troponin and other tests are very important, other tests include ambulatory blood pressure, echocardiography, etc.

Diabetic heart disease patients need to do an electrocardiogram to determine the beating state of the patient’s heart and make a preliminary judgment. Patients also require fasting blood glucose testing to avoid misdiagnosis. In addition, a series of routine examinations such as CT, MRI and B-ultrasound are required. Through these tests, you can understand your physical condition, so as to better achieve the purpose of treatment.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is generally diagnosed by a combination of medical history and accompanying symptoms. General examination methods can be done by electrocardiogram to determine whether the heart function is normal. It is also necessary to do chest X-ray examination, as well as blood routine, blood gas analysis, blood oxygen saturation, and pulmonary function tests to help confirm the diagnosis. Need to take oxygen, drugs and other treatment methods to improve symptoms.

It can be seen that most chronic diseases can reflect abnormal conditions through electrocardiogram. Therefore, ECG is very important in clinical practice. Of course, special emphasis is placed on doing ECG when symptoms occur, and the sensitivity and specificity will be relatively better. However, due to the transient characteristics of heart disease attacks, it is difficult to accurately capture, and the traditional ECG detection is cumbersome to operate. Therefore, patients with heart disease need to do daily regular monitoring.

Plus1Health has an ECG recorder, which can monitor ECG, issue ECG in time, and support single-lead,3-lead,6-lead, and 12-lead. There is also an ECG watch development solution, and a free APP “AFibCheck“, which can be downloaded and used by searching in the mobile application store, and the operation is simple and convenient.

Atrial fibrillation is the abbreviation of atrial fibrillation, which is the most common arrhythmia. There are more than 10 million patients with atrial fibrillation in China. With the increase of age, the prevalence of atrial fibrillation has risen sharply, even reaching 10% among people over 75 years old.

Atrial fibrillation screening methods include blood pressure measurement, pulse palpation, electrocardiogram screening, long-term holter screening, implanted holter screening and smart phones.

Through pulse palpation and automatic blood pressure measurement, although such methods are simple and easy to operate, there is a high probability of missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis.

Most ECG needs to be carried out in medical institutions, and the heart rate can only be recorded for about 10 seconds. For patients with fewer atrial fibrillation attacks and irregular patterns, the examination rate is low.

However, implantable holter is expensive and needs to be implanted with equipment for screening atrial fibrillation. At present, most patients are not willing to accept it.

The current popularity of smart phones, almost everyone has a single lead ECG recording through smart phones, which can track the rhythm for a longer time and is expected to further improve the detection rate of atrial fibrillation.

For patients with hidden ECG screening, the application of long-term holter and implantable holter should be increased to make up for the short recording time of ordinary ECG and reduce the missed diagnosis rate of asymptomatic atrial fibrillation.

Plus1Health has an ECG monitoring app——AFibCheck or wearable ECG patch and supporting ECG monitoring scheme, which can also realize remote ECG monitoring function. Home ECG monitoring can be carried out immediately, and real-time ECG report can be issued.

At present, cardiovascular disease accounts for more than 40% of the deaths of residents from diseases, higher than tumors and other diseases, and is the first cause of death for residents in China, and the disease prevalence is still on the rise. Norris also pointed out that 72% of patients had obvious discomfort before the onset of cardiac arrest. The application of remote ECG monitoring in home care for the elderly can timely capture the abnormal ECG of cardiovascular patients before the onset of the disease, give early warning, win time for timely treatment by doctors, and effectively reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events, disability and mortality.

1.Home based elderly care medical services

Home based elderly care medical services mainly include chronic disease intervention and hierarchical management, two-way referral, psychological and spiritual consolation, etc., providing patients with regular physical examination, medical and health care consulting, treatment and rehabilitation of chronic diseases, and timely rescue of sudden diseases. A complete set of home medical services can reduce the economic burden of chronic patients, speed up the turnover of hospital beds, and reduce the waste of medical and health resources.

Due to the shortage of professional medical service personnel, the residential areas of the elderly at home are relatively scattered, bringing many challenges to the medical services provided for the elderly at home. With the development of information technology, mobile technology can provide more services for the elderly, and wearable monitoring devices can be used to monitor the vital signs of the elderly in real time.

2.Remote ECG monitoring

1) Remote ECG monitoring

On the basis of conventional ECG, the remote ECG monitoring technology uses modern communication technology, computer technology, IOT and other technologies to transmit human ECG information to the remote ECG monitoring platform through wireless network. It is a telemedicine mode that provides patients with ECG analysis, diagnosis and processing through real-time analysis of remote ECG monitoring platform and guidance of ECG experts.

2)Remote ECG monitoring equipment

The remote ECG monitoring equipment includes wireless network multi parameter monitor and single channel home ECG monitor, which can transmit the patient’s ECG information to the monitoring system remotely and in real time through wireless network.

Wireless network multi parameter monitor can collect ECG, respiration, pulse and other parameters in real time; Support real-time display of ECG and respiratory waveform, physiological parameter values and monitor operation status; Support remote pressure measurement and timed pressure measurement; Support multiple modes of monitoring; Support real-time alarm of abnormal data such as bradycardia, myocardial ischemia, cardiac arrest and malignant arrhythmia; Support GPRS, WIFI, Bluetooth and other wireless transmission methods. The equipment is miniaturized and equipped with touch screen, which is easy to operate and carry.

Plus1Health single channel home ECG monitor is easy to operate and wear. It can quickly collect the ECG data of the elderly at home and upload it to the remote ECG monitoring system in a timely manner. The biggest advantage is that it can accurately and timely capture the abnormal ECG data of patients at the time of onset. It is especially suitable for patients with transient arrhythmia, transient chest distress and palpitation symptoms to conduct home monitoring. At the same time, it supports the terminal applet to view data and reports.

3) Remote ECG monitoring system

The remote ECG monitoring system adopts IOT technology, mobile communication technology and wireless transmission technology to achieve a vertical closed system of real-time monitoring, automatic early warning, active intervention and hierarchical diagnosis and treatment through wearable ECG monitoring equipment.

(1) ECG data communication system: ECG data communication system is responsible for the access authentication of ECG monitoring equipment and ECG monitoring system networking.

(2) ECG data storage system: ECG data storage system is responsible for the storage, query, access and other management operations of the system database. The system adopts cloud platform storage technology and can be composed of several devices to achieve load balancing. Through the superposition of server modules, it is convenient to expand the system capacity and facilitate the medical expansion of the system.

(3) ECG intelligent monitoring system: ECG intelligent monitoring system is mainly responsible for real-time analysis and judgment of received ECG data, automatically finding abnormal data, and sending out signal alarm.

3.Application mode of remote ECG monitoring

Remote ECG monitoring mainly provides ECG monitoring services for patients with myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, myocardial ischemia, cardiogenic syncope, pacemaker installation, and patients with chest tightness, chest pain, blackness, syncope, transient dizziness, transient palpitation, etc.

The remote ECG monitoring system can automatically analyze the ECG data monitored at home, timely capture the abnormal data of patients, and issue early warning prompts.

The application of remote ECG monitoring system has built a bridge between the hospital and the family, enabling the elderly at home to enjoy high-quality medical services in the community service center and at home. It plays a very important role in the follow-up treatment and management of preoperative and postoperative rehabilitation patients. It is convenient for the elderly to seek medical treatment, greatly liberating patients to release more medical resources, helping to alleviate the problem of difficult and expensive medical treatment. At the same time, with the help of telemedicine technology, it reduces the tiredness and expenses of the elderly during their journey to go out for medical treatment, saves medical expenses and reduces medical risks. In addition, remote ECG monitoring can detect the abnormal situation of the elderly at home in advance, and patients can go to the hospital passively to actively intervene, so that the elderly at home can get better medical services, cultivate the elderly’s awareness of self-health management, reduce the incidence of serious diseases, and improve the quality of life of the elderly.

With the sharp increase in the number of cardiovascular and other diseases, the home ECG early warning instrument is extremely important in the prevention and monitoring of these diseases, which can greatly reduce the sudden early warning of these diseases. For the research and development and application of electrical modules, Plus1Health started the “OEM customization of ECG modules” based on the performance and use of ECG modules. The main explanations are as follows:

1.Product description and use

The high-performance, ultra-low-power portable single-lead ECG module integrates data acquisition, data processing, and data transmission. In addition, the module has rich peripheral interfaces to support secondary development by customers. It is easy to use, stable in performance, and small in size. Meet the needs of portable medical, sports and fitness equipment.

ECG/heart rate measurement

ECG record

ECG analysis

sleep quality monitoring

Step counting function

2.Main features

Small size, simple installation, high stability and accuracy. Operating voltage 3.3 V, low voltage.

Monitoring mode for real-time telemetry

Holter Mode for Offline Storage

Event-triggered diagnostic mode

Stress Mode for Intensity Exercise

Support four measurement modes basic functions

Do many people have this feeling: just felt chest tightness, palpitation, etc., but when he arrived at the hospital and took an ECG, the doctor said that there was no problem. At this time, many people have doubts. Before that, they felt that they were going to kick out of breath, but the doctor said that there was nothing wrong with it. In fact, what the doctor said is right. The ECG is real-time and dynamic. It may be ready at the hospital. So the ECG is also normal, and naturally it is no problem. Therefore, 24-hour ambulatory ECG is particularly important at this time. It can seize the moment of onset and issue ECG to doctors for reference and analysis.

The 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiogram is a method that can continuously record and analyze the electrocardiogram changes of human heart in active and quiet state for a long time. Compared with ordinary ECG, 24-hour dynamic ECG can continuously record about one hundred thousand of ECG signals, and can provide the detection rate of non-sustainable arrhythmia, especially transient arrhythmia and transient myocardial ischemia attack. It can be said that almost any deviation of ECG wave is not allowed to pass, so as to make up for the deficiency of ordinary ECG, and improve the detection rate of irregular palpitations, especially transient palpitations and short chest tightness and heartache attacks, including non-sensory and asymptomatic abnormal ECG changes can also be detected. The 24-hour dynamic electrocardiogram can determine whether the patient’s palpitations, dizziness, syncope and other symptoms are related to arrhythmia, such as extreme bradycardia, cardiac arrest, conduction block, ventricular tachycardia, etc.

Plus1Health has a ECG product ——ECG recorder and solution, which can realize 24-hour continuous ECG monitoring, generate 24-hour dynamic ECG, and issue ECG report analysis.

The two main technologies equipped with smart watch products are PPG and ECG.

The full name of PPG is photocapacitance pulse wave tracing. In principle, it emits a light beam of a certain wavelength (generally green light) to the skin, and then it is received by the photoelectric receiver through transmission or reflection. It processes and displays the periodic light intensity changes detected in this process due to blood circulation, and generates pulse data.

PPG can also be used to measure the blood oxygen value. The principle is that the blood reflectivity with different oxygen content is different. It can also be detected by photoelectric receiver, and then processed and estimated by algorithm to obtain the blood oxygen value.

PPG technology can calculate pulse, blood oxygen and even blood pressure, which is more suitable for normalization monitoring. Therefore, some smart watch products are equipped with small air bags and pressure sensors for specific blood pressure measurement needs, and use more traditional and clinical oscillographic methods to accurately measure blood pressure.

ECG refers to electrocardiogram, but when applied to smart watches, there is a big gap in scale with the monitoring methods of large equipment and multiple patch electrodes commonly used in hospitals. The principle is to collect bioelectric signals, and the potential differences and changes in different parts of the human body can be restored to a variety of values including heart rate after algorithm processing.

The measurement method of ECG principle on intelligent wearable devices is more accurate than PPG, but the coverage is relatively smaller. The ECG itself can reflect quite a lot of data on human health.

The PLUS101 module of Plus1Health uses PPG and ECG detection to realize monitoring, analysis and early warning. Based on pulse wave technology and hardware standards, ECG measurement principle is used to collect cardiac bioelectric signals, and real-time detect atrial fibrillation, premature beats and other arrhythmia problems. It is suitable for irregular work and rest, high intensity, elderly people, professional ECG auxiliary report, and understand physical conditions at any time and anywhere. Monitor the heart rate, blood oxygen, blood pressure, ECG and other data from time to time. The APP dynamically reminds the family of the health status. If the background analysis is completed, it will timely send early warning information to the watch and relatives, tachycardia/bradycardia alarm, atrial fibrillation monitoring alarm, abnormal alarm, etc.

It has been widely recognized that excessive exercise or fatigue exercise can cause sports injury, but it is still difficult to judge. Smart watches with ECG function mainly rely on accurate measurement of exercise heart rate and fatigue test to prevent sports injury. Exercise heart rate monitoring is used to monitor exercise intensity in real time during exercise, prevent sports injury and provide exercise efficiency; fatigue test is used to evaluate the physical condition before exercise to prevent sports injury caused by excessive exercise.

The main functions of heart rate monitor are：

1. It can reflect the real information of the user’s body when exercising. If the heart rate is too high and the exercise is too intense, and the user’s body water evaporates too fast, then this exercise is not beneficial to the body. If the heart rate is not high enough for light exercise, the user will not be able to burn enough calories, thus not achieving the expected exercise effect.

2. By monitoring whether the resting heart rate is within the normal range, monitoring cardiac arrest and abnormal increase of heart rate in daily activities can play a timely role in preventing disease, and even detecting whether the heart rate is abnormal by monitoring the heart rate. In addition, the pulse wave signal PPG changes can also be monitored through the optical capacitance pulse wave sensor to analyze the pulse rate, blood oxygen concentration, microcirculation and peripheral vascular status of diabetes patients.

3. The monitored HRV heart rate variability can be used to analyze the assessment of autonomic nervous function, such as mental stress, tension and relaxation, and sleep quality.

The main functions of ECG monitor are：

1. Prevention of sports injury: monitor the intensity of sports in real time to prevent sports injury and improve sports efficiency; the fatigue and stress tests are used to evaluate the physical condition before exercise to prevent sports injury caused by excessive exercise.

2. Prevention of sudden death from exercise: before sudden death from exercise, abnormal changes will occur in the electrocardiogram of sudden death. If the abnormal changes of ECG can be captured and treated in time, it will make a great contribution to the prevention of sports sudden death.

The PLUS101 module adopts a self-developed high-sensitivity ECG acquisition module, which can directly collect ECG data, and convert the measured HRV value to fatigue and stress, and achieve the purpose of convenient testing and use on the premise of ensuring accuracy. Users can adjust the exercise intensity according to fatigue.

The PLUS101 module adopts single-lead ECG monitoring, which has good reference value for arrhythmia detection, such as ventricular premature beats, atrial fibrillation, etc.; at the same time, single-lead ECG also has certain diagnostic value for myocardial ischemia.

In the daily cardiac health management, users can use the ECG watch as a daily monitoring and abnormal prompt tool. When the ECG data is abnormal, they can go to the hospital for detailed ECG monitoring and detection, so as to play the role of prevention and treatment.

In recent years, heart rate monitors and electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors have begun to rise, and most new smart watches are equipped with these two sensors. These allow users to track heart rhythm and ECG activity, making it very suitable for tracking health and fitness data. It can also help you track your progress and bring you closer to your goal.

For example, some of the best smart watches with ECG function are introduced below. Some of these products have been approved by FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and some have hardware but are waiting for approval. What has not been approved does not necessarily mean that they are inaccurate.

1、Apple Watch Series 7

It is seamlessly paired with all compatible iPhones and has a built-in ECG function. Users can easily turn on the ECG function by placing their fingers on the digital watch crown and pressing it according to the instructions on the smart watch display. Reliable and accurate information can be obtained in a few seconds.

After ECG tracking, the results will be provided in simple English. This information is also recorded in the Apple Health smart watch application and can be shared with doctors. The Apple Watch Series 7 has been approved by FDA, and the ECG function has been provided in many countries/regions in North America, Europe and Asia.

2. Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 series

The first smart watch pre-installed with Wear OS 3 software, with ECG function. It only takes 30 seconds to complete the ECG measurement, and the user is required to put his finger on the top button, and must remain motionless during the whole tracking process. In order to obtain the most accurate results, their arms must also be placed on a flat surface.

After the measurement is completed, the user can go to the Samsung Health App on the mobile phone to view the results, and some basic information will also be displayed on the watch. The ECG function of Galaxy Watch 4 series has been approved in the United States, Europe, South Korea and several other Asian regions.

3、Fitbit Sense

Another excellent wearable device on the market supports ECG tracking function. Like other smart watches above, it has been approved by FDA and can be used in specific countries/regions including the United States and Europe.

To check the ECG, the user needs to touch the shell with his finger while holding still, and then the sensor obtains the ECG and displays the results on the watch and mobile application. This information can also be exported as PDF, which can detect abnormal rhythms, including high heart rate and low heart rate.

Fitbit Sense has an ECG sensor and can track many sports activities. It is one of the best fitness equipment. It is fully supported on both iPhone and Android devices, and has many powerful functions to help you stay motivated and keep fit.

4、HUAWEI Watch GT 3 Pro

Available in ceramic and titanium models. The smart watch can answer the phone through Bluetooth. Its fashionable design is integrated with modern wrists and smart watches. There is a customizable dial and even an ECG sensor, which can automatically detect more than 100 exercise modes to help you track your progress.

HUAWEI Watch GT 3 Pro supports sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, SPO2 and ECG. It can be used for about 14 days for a single charge and about 8 days for heavy use. Like most other smart watches in this list, it has a 5ATM waterproof certificate up to 30 meters and is compatible with Android and iOS platforms. However, some features may be limited to Android.

The built-in health sign monitoring function of smart watch plays a strong guiding role in our health. For example, heart rate monitoring, many precursors of atrial fibrillation will be reflected in heart rate. The portable intelligent wearable device can help us detect data abnormalities in time, inform us and detect them in time, and let us find professional doctors for treatment. Similarly, ECG can help us to judge the condition of heart beating, as well as the frequency and rhythm, and can diagnose some cardiovascular diseases.

After the smart watch is equipped with the ECG function, it can record the graphics of ECG signals in detail. For the detection of abnormal cardiac rhythms such as atrial fibrillation and premature beats (premature ventricular beats and premature atrial beats), it can help users identify arrhythmia more accurately, provide arrhythmia risk screening, personalized guidance, appointment and integrated management services, and independently manage cardiac health. Especially for people who often stay up late, live irregularly, are obese, and have occasional cardiac discomfort, the monitoring of these functions has important reference value for personal health management.

The audience of medical and health intelligent hardware has the characteristics of segmentation, and users may develop from health needs to medical needs at any time.

At present, in the field of medical and health intelligent hardware mobile devices, the competition between blood pressure meters and blood glucose meters is the most intense. However, in the face of sophisticated and complex ECG devices and unpredictable ECG waveforms, most companies still have no confidence to take the initiative, and can only marvel at the market of hundreds of millions of cardiovascular people.

Cardiovascular patients are characterized by a large number of patients, large reserve population, high mortality rate and high difficulty in emergency treatment. For the long-term management of cardiovascular diseases, it is mainly phased health care. In order to better conduct disease screening and postoperative monitoring, systematic and intelligent management is the development goal.

At present, the operation modes of ECG equipment manufacturers in the market mainly include:

1. Only R&D and manufacturing of ECG hardware equipment

Most of these ECG devices are integrated terminals with display screens, which are not equipped with professional ECG analysis software and services. The ECG devices only produce waveforms and no diagnostic results.

2. Both ECG hardware equipment and algorithm

The R&D team makes automatic analysis software. The ECG equipment is equipped with automatic analysis software with different functions to prompt the ECG results, making the professional and complex ECG waveform easier to understand and more suitable for home users.

3. In addition to hardware, algorithms and software, we also provide various services based on ECG products

Considering the particularity of ECG equipment and cardiovascular diseases, various follow-up services must be an essential part of the ECG market, such as remote ECG monitoring and rescue, cardiac health management, etc. Such comprehensive businesses require higher requirements for the company.

Plus1Health is the third kind of ECG equipment manufacturer, which includes ECG hardware equipment, algorithms and software, and services based on ECG products. It can provide ECG products and solutions, such as ECG stickers, ECG watches/bracelets, and remote ECG monitoring.