I watch 7 pacemaker

Does anyone know if the Iwatch 7  EKG app will work if you have a pacemaker? I know my Kardia  does not work with the pacemaker I'm wondering if the IWatch is the same.


3 Comments

Kardia

by AgentX86 - 2022-05-16 22:28:34

Kardia does work with pacemakers but it won't identify Afib. The EKG can still be read and sent to your EP.  I suspect that iWatch is the same for two reasons. It likely doesn't understand pacing spikes and there isn't enough demand to build it and test. Kardia is FDA "approved" which complicates matters greatly.  Then there is the CYA issue.

Monitoring of arrhythmias

by Gemita - 2022-05-17 07:15:01

Jimmy, before you spend money buying an iWatch 7 which will no doubt be subject to some interference from your pacemaker, I would like to say like AgentX86 that to my knowledge, Kardia will record an EKG with a pacemaker which your doctor (or you) can then interpret to determine the arrhythmia present.  Kardia may return an "unclassified" recording as a result of pacemaker interference even in the presence of AF, but for the trained eye, the EKG strip will still be meaningful.

Paced EKG rhythm strips may require a special skill in accurately interpreting them.  For example, even when receiving a full 12 lead "in hospital" EKG test, I have sometimes witnessed junior doctors struggle to understand my “paced” rhythm strips which have often needed interpretation by a doctor experienced in reading “paced” rhythms.  There are however many members here who still use Kardia very successfully, particularly if they have a basic understanding of how to interpret an EKG.  If not, they can send or take the Kardia EKG strips to their doctors or learn how to start interpreting their own EKGs.  There are plenty of good learning sites online. 

May I ask why you want personally to monitor your AF?  You already have an excellent monitoring system set up in the form of your pacemaker and I am assuming you already have the ability to transmit data whenever you are symptomatic?  You could also keep a diary of significant symptoms/events to discuss with your doctors who may then correlate these with any pacemaker downloads.   

Both are fine.

by PacedNRunning - 2022-05-22 02:27:39

I use both Kardia and Apple Watch. I pace 100% of the time. It's worked fine for me. I rarely get unclassified. You will never see pacing spikes unless the pacemaker is unipolar which most Rossi are bipolar. Even on hospital EKG's is the machine is not set to pacemaker it will not show the pacemaker spikes. 

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