Your smartwatch will soon have the capability to identify indications of heart failure.

      Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a condition impacting more than five million individuals in the United States. It is the most frequent diagnosis for those aged 65 and older when admitted to the hospital. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, heart failure is a contributing factor in one out of nine deaths.

      Smartwatches may soon provide a solution.

      Researchers at Tampere University have created a new method for detecting congestive heart failure using smartwatches. This multi-disciplinary team, which includes heart health and machine learning specialists, has developed a real-time analysis technique that utilizes smartwatches and heart rate monitors.

      Heart diseases typically display a distinct pattern of cardiac activity, and a thorough examination by an expert can help identify serious issues. For instance, AFib detection seeks irregular heartbeat rhythms through the analysis of electrocardiogram (ECG) data.

      The researchers are employing a similar approach to diagnose CHF in patients, focusing on the data obtained from inter-beat or RR intervals. The RR interval refers to the duration of a ventricular cardiac cycle, which, in the context of an ECG, denotes the time between two successive R-waves on an ECG graph. The accuracy of their method was assessed against a control group of healthy individuals and those with atrial fibrillation (AFib).

      According to a study published in the Heart Rhythm O2 journal, smartwatches can accurately identify signs of congestive heart failure. This system is not only user-friendly and cost-efficient, but it can also aid in recognizing the onset of significant cardiac issues, potentially saving lives.

      The research paper states, "This approach highlights the potential of non-invasive, cost-effective RRI analysis for the early detection of CHF (congestive heart failure) and AF (atrial fibrillation)." In terms of measurement accuracy, the method achieved 90% sensitivity and 92% specificity in identifying markers for heart failure and AFib.

      Last year, this same team devised a smartwatch-based calculation method to predict the risk of sudden cardiac arrest death based on just a minute’s worth of heart rate data collected from a smartwatch.

      Professor Jussi Hernesniemi, a cardiologist at Tays Heart Hospital, remarked, "Our findings pave the way for the early detection of congestive heart failure using readily available equipment, thus removing the need for complicated diagnostic procedures."

      This recent advancement is part of a growing body of promising smartwatch-based research. Over the past ten years, smartwatches have evolved from mere digital companions into powerful health-monitoring devices.

      Currently, there are smartwatches that measure blood pressure and detect signs of sleep apnea, with capabilities like blood glucose monitoring expected in the near future. Earlier this year, another study indicated that smartwatch data could accurately identify psychiatric disorders and trace their origins to an individual’s unique genetic profile.