gherman22
About
- Username
- gherman22
- Joined
- Visits
- 2
- Last Active
- Roles
- member
- Points
- 13
- Badges
- 0
- Posts
- 2
Reactions
-
Apple Watch Series 4 ECG spots AFib in owner, leading to life-saving procedure
anantksundaram said:MplsP said:The headline and parts of the article are overblown and/or incorrect.
Atrial fibrillation is not directly fatal. in fact, a large number of people live for years or even decades with chronic atrial fibrillation. The two main risks imparted by the condition are thromboembolic stroke and heart failure/other issues caused by tacky cardia typically associated with atrial fibrillation. The risk for stroke is significant, but not huge and can be significantly reduced with blood thinners. The other complications are dependent on the heart rate and how long it is elevated.
"His heart was restarted under sedation" - wrong. HIs heart never stopped. He had a DC cardioversion to convert him from atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm.
False positives are always a worry, and can drive up health care costs. But when someone has had a brain injury (as this person has), it’s probably better to be safe than sorry.
I was tested on a real EKG which confirmed and we performed several more tests and he ordered an Echo-cardio graham which is ultrasound of the chest area. Being Friday after Christmas in America’s wonderful health care system I didn’t get to see my doctor again until two days after New Years (Although he left a voicemail that the Echo detected I have an enlarged Aorta and a leaky valve. Which scared the be-Jesus out of me not knowing what that meant. While waiting I continued to run the app every day and although it continued to show A-fib the entire day Friday it has been showing Sinus Rythm every day since. When I finally did get to talk to my doctor again I was told that it was more likely that the watch would show a false negative for A-fib than a false positive but it was a good sign that I might merely have intermittent A-fib.
I finally saw a cardiologist Tuesday who confirmed the readings, looked at all my on watch tests and fortunately told me that although I have some symptoms they are not serious and the only major concern is stroke. He said we need to watch it and I was given a course of action, I was told that I should take a blood thinner but I could either take a prescription medicine such as warfarin or just full dose Aspirin. For now I’m taking aspirin and I was told unless I saw other symptoms a follow up Echo and meeting with him would be in “six months or so”. Since I’m returning to Thailand today we set te appointment for a year from now.
I would say the watch has probably saved my life in pointing out an issue that without detection could have gotten much worse with me even knowing it.