Kardia Mobile 6L

My thoughts

by Gemita - 2020-02-17 04:01:32

Seo your post is of interest to me since I have always wondered whether it would be worthwhile to own a Kardia mobile to occasionally attempt to monitor symptomatic arrhythmias.  From what I have read, the ECGs of pacemaker patients would need to be read/confirmed by a doctor because Kardia Mobile cannot confirm the accuracy of such readings in patients with pacemakers.  Also Kardia may not be able to give a clear indication of the result in pacemaker patients (at least not to someone unfamiliar with reading an ECG).

It is very strange that for a period you were able to get some decent ECG recordings which has now suddenly changed.  It is reassuring though that your EP is not concerned and says these changes would be very normal for you and your past medical history.

Your underlying question is technical Seo and I hope someone on this forum can help explain how the changes you now see on your short traces of ECG may have come about?  Do you have any bundle branch blocks or any other blocks or possibly other arrhythmias that might account for these results? 

Personally I would tend to think the pacing therapy, any ongoing heart condition/illness, as well as the after effects of your ablation, could all affect your ECGs.  After an ablation the heart needs months of healing I am told and I would imagine we could expect to see sudden changes on our ECG as a result.

I would not be in a hurry to correct anything that you think could be an error in recording.  It could just turn out to be a new finding and give useful feedback.  Instead I would periodically continue to send printouts (at least of the short tracings that are recorded) to your EP for his analysis, particularly if you start getting any new symptoms.  Additionally send a copy to Kardia Mobile team for their analysis in case it is a "system error" that can be easily corrected.  Have you tried lengthening the period of recording (from minimum to maximum) to see if this helps to clear any error and get longer tracings for better assessment ??

Kardia Mobile

by AgentX86 - 2020-02-17 08:19:22

Alivecore says that the Kardia Mobile isn't for those with pacemakers.  The pacing spikes throw off the software but you can easily learn to read the AKG strips yourself, at least well enough to recognize Afib. Flutter is more difficult and can't be seen at all with the first generation (single lead). Also, they're useful if your EP will accept strips that you email to him. Many do. Ask.

Response for Gemita

by Seo - 2020-02-19 03:22:41

Hi Gemita. Alive-cor is pretty emphatic that they havent tested paced ekgs for accuracy, but at the same time, it seemed to record ok, and looked like my "normal" taken by my EP. the pacing spikes don't show up. Prior to my ablation for flutter, the flutter was very apparent on all six leads. Since the ablation, but before the pacemaker, lead I is upright, leads II and III are inverted. aVr, aVl are upright, and aVf is inverted. When the recordin anomaly showed up, lead I was still upright, but all the other leads flipped their orientation. You're correct that while the heart is healing lots of different things show up on your ekg. I saw all those, and was advised to exoect them. Those have all settled down. My flutter seems to be gone. To answer a question, pre ablation I also had a second degree block type 1, and a bifascicular block. Along with flutter, and bradycardia. The pacer makes you look like you have a right bundle branch block, but I'm pretty sure I did anyway. It's interesting that today, my ekg is back to "normal."  So I am convinced it's a recording anomaly. I was never concerned that my pacer was malfunctioning, ot that some new heart problem was presenting itself, but it was frustrating that having once worked well, the kardia was having problems. All in all, I'm doing great. I feel really good, am walking over a mile/day for exercise, and I no longer get short of breath or dizzy if I exert myself. The pacer has been life changing and I'm glad I have it. I'd just like to figure out the recording issue. I'm an engineer, so things like this bug me. Thanks for responding !

Response to agentx86

by Seo - 2020-02-19 03:34:08

You're totally correct that alivecor disavows the accuracy of paced recordings. Although my pacer is mostly only monitoring. That aside though, my probkem was that my recordings suddenly inverted (no, I didn't invert the ekg device). Today, they suddenly switched back to normal, so I now believe it when it tells me there is interference. As an interesting aside, the older single lead unit did show flutter, but it doesn't know how to classify it. On the six lead, flutter is very apoarent. It still cant classify it, but if youve seen it, you recognize it. This wasn't ever a question relative to the function of my pacemaker, but rather wondering if anyine else had used a kardia mobile six lead with a pacemaker and seen odd results themselves. Thanks for responding.