Smart medical wristband tracks hidden arrhythmias to prevent strokes

 This finds the problem, but does nothing to prevent strokes! What EXACTLY needs to occur to prevent that stroke? Bad title! Your doctor better EXACTLY KNOW THE ANSWER!

Smart medical wristband tracks hidden arrhythmias to prevent strokes

Kaunas University of Technology (KTU)Jul 7 2026Reviewed

According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases claim almost 20 million lives every year and remain the leading cause of death worldwide. Although they are most often associated with heart attacks or strokes, serious complications do not always begin suddenly - sometimes their onset is far less noticeable.

For doctors, this raises a difficult question: how can they record something that is not happening during an examination? A standard electrocardiogram (ECG) shows the heart's activity only at a specific moment, while even longer-term monitoring does not always coincide with less frequent episodes of heart rhythm disorders. As a result, some arrhythmias, particularly short episodes of atrial fibrillation, may go unnoticed until they cause more serious health problems.

As society ages and the prevalence of chronic diseases rises, this diagnostic gap is becoming more significant. Patients need monitoring not only in healthcare settings but also in their daily lives. For physicians, it is important to understand not just whether an abnormal heart rhythm occurred during a specific examination, but also how frequently such episodes happen, how long they last, under what conditions they arise, and whether their occurrence increases over time.

A system developed by Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and other Lithuanian researchers aims to address this problem, and its solutions are being applied in Teltonika Telemedic's TeltoHeart medical wristband. The system enables continuous heart rhythm monitoring, allows a more detailed ECG recording to be made using the same device and transmits the data to a doctor remotely.

Particularly important for post-stroke patients

Professor Dr Vaidotas Marozas, Director of the Biomedical Engineering Institute at KTU, emphasizes that the system was first developed with patients in mind for whom undetected heart rhythm disorders can have particularly serious consequences. One such group is people who have suffered a stroke.

The team chose to focus on post-stroke patients because atrial fibrillation is often short-lived and asymptomatic. As a result, standard examination methods - an electrocardiogram in a clinic or even Holter monitoring, where a patient wears a heart rhythm recording device for one or several days - often fail to detect such episodes." 

Professor Dr Vaidotas Marozas, Director of the Biomedical Engineering Institute at KTU

According to the KTU professor, heart rhythm disorders, particularly atrial fibrillation, are directly linked to an increased risk of ischaemic stroke. If an arrhythmia goes undetected, the patient may not receive the appropriate treatment, which increases the likelihood of a recurrent stroke.

The technology developed and continuously improved by KTU researchers and Teltonika Telemedic enables continuous heart rhythm monitoring. When a suspicious episode is detected, the system alerts the patient via an on-screen notification or vibration. This allows the event to be captured precisely when it occurs rather than days or weeks later during a doctor's appointment.

It does not require adhesive electrodes or additional wires - the user simply touches the electrodes integrated into the device. Within about a minute, a more detailed ECG recording is made, showing the heart's electrical activity from several directions, and the data are then sent to the doctor.

In addition, the system will analyse not only the fact that an arrhythmia has occurred. It will use an arrhythmia aggregation parameter showing how episodes of rhythm disturbance are distributed over time - whether they occur evenly throughout the monitoring period or cluster into groups of short episodes.

"For a doctor, this kind of information would provide significantly more value than the mere fact that an arrhythmia was detected," says Marozas.

According to the KTU professor, such assessment makes it possible to monitor disease progression and assess a rising risk of complications at an earlier stage.

Patent marks a step towards wider application

To ensure that the data are reliable in real-life conditions, a specialised signal processing algorithm has also been integrated into the system. Movement, changes in body position or physical activity can distort signals, so the system first assesses their quality and only then sends suitable segments for more detailed analysis.

"The system distinguishes dangerous arrhythmias from noise caused by everyday activity using a multi-stage signal analysis process," says Marozas.

The patent granted to the system confirmed its technological novelty and became an important step towards further clinical trials and wider application. According to Marozas, the patent covers not only the wrist-worn device itself, but also arrhythmia analysis algorithms, arrhythmia aggregation and other new assessment parameters.

"The patent obtained is an important recognition of many years of interdisciplinary work and technological novelty. However, the greatest motivation remains saving patients' lives, improving their quality of life and advancing medicine in a way that benefits society," says Marozas.

A large interdisciplinary team contributed to both the patent application and the development of the technology, including KTU researcher Andrius Petrėnas, cardiologist Justinas Bacevičius from Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Clinics, KTU researchers Andrius Sološenko, Saulius Daukantas and Monika Butkuvienė, as well as KTU doctoral students, engineers, and medical residents from Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Clinics. For patients, the "TeltoHeart" device primarily means a simpler route to a doctor's consultation. According to Ilgevičius, if a person is recovering at home after surgery or a serious illness, they do not necessarily need to travel to a healthcare facility for tests.

The solution can now be implemented in the majority of healthcare institutions across Lithuania. Patients can use the solution together with a physician's consultation, while telemedicine services are already available in some outpatient clinics through projects funded by the European Union.

Nevertheless, broader reimbursement of such solutions for at-risk patients, such as people who have suffered a stroke, remains a future objective. According to the technology's developers, reimbursement policies may ultimately determine whether advanced remote monitoring solutions become widely accessible to the patients who need them most.

Source:

Kaunas University of Technology (KTU)

ACC offers practical approaches for arrhythmia monitoring after stroke

 Did this get installed as a protocol in your hospital? NO? So, you DON'T have a functioning stroke hospital, do you?

ACC offers practical approaches for arrhythmia monitoring after stroke   

he American College of Cardiology (ACC) recently published a new expert consensus document on practical approaches for arrhythmia monitoring after stroke. The guidance offers clinicians tailored strategies to improve post-stroke care by identifying and managing atrial fibrillation (AF) and other arrhythmias linked to recurrent stroke risk.

The ACC Solution Set Oversight Committee's "2024 ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway on Practical Approaches for Arrhythmia Monitoring After Stroke" includes comprehensive guidance for arrhythmia detection based on stroke subtype, leveraging extended monitoring and implantable cardiac monitors where appropriate.[1] The document offers a detailed evaluation of medical-grade and consumer-grade monitoring devices to support clinicians in selecting the right tools for individual patients. The document also emphases collaboration between clinicians and patients to personalize monitoring
strategies and treatment plans.

“There is growing consensus on the role of cardiac rhythm monitoring in patients after a stroke that is informed by outcomes of several recent landmark trials,” said Michael T. Spooner, MD, MBA, FACC, writing committee chair and director of electrophysiology and program director of the Mercy One North Iowa Cardiovascular Fellowship, in a statement from ACC. “Although improved monitoring leads to improved detection of arrhythmia after a stroke, there remains less clarity on the effect this detection has on secondary stroke prevention.”

Stroke is a leading cause of disability and death worldwide and identifying its underlying cause is critical to preventing recurrent events. AF is a common but often silent arrhythmia, and it significantly increases stroke risk.

Traditional methods of AF diagnosis, including brief electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings, often fall short of capturing transient AF, so longer duration of monitoring can increase the rate of AF detection, was one of the key takeaways from list created by Geoffrey D. Barnes, MD, MSc, FACC, associate professor, Frankel Cardiovascular Center, University of Michigan. He noted the document also states the longer the time interval between the ischemic stroke and the detected AF episode decreases the likelihood of AF as a proximal cause of the prior event.

Barnes said in his takeaways that various technologies have been developed to identify AF, including continuous or intermittent ambulatory ECG monitors, which have gained wide adoption in the past few years. There are also medical-grade monitors (typically electrical activity monitoring) and consumer-grade monitors (either electrical activity monitoring or photoplethysmography) can also help in monitoring these patients.

Arrhythmia monitoring after a stroke requires three important steps. First, a multidisciplinary evaluation should be undertaken to identify potential mechanism for stroke. Second, risk assessment is performed to determine the likelihood that a cardiac arrhythmia played a role in the stroke (or future stroke). Third, an optimal monitoring strategy should be selected to be accurate, practical, and establish follow-up.

For patients in whom arrhythmia monitoring detects >5 minutes of AF, anticoagulation is likely recommended. This is particularly true if their CHA2DS2-VASc score is ≥3. For those with no AF, continuing antiplatelet therapy is recommended, Barnes wrote.

Read more key takeaways.
 

Read the full 25-page document.

                                                   

Coffee Study Casts More Doubt on Arrhythmia Link

More reasons for my 10-12 cups of coffee a day(1 pot, now decaf since caffeine is not the healthy part of coffee.). But don't do this, not proven as an antiarrhythmic. I'm doing my coffee habit for preventing dementia and Parkinsons.

Coffee Study Casts More Doubt on Arrhythmia Link

 

Can that cup of joe even be antiarrhythmic?

by Nicole Lou, Staff Writer, MedPage Today July 19, 2021

Coffee drinkers, even those genetically predisposed to slower caffeine metabolism, were not at heightened risk of developing cardiac arrhythmias, a large cohort study found.

Instead, each cup of coffee was associated with a 3% lower risk of incident arrhythmia (adjusted HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.96-0.98) among U.K. Biobank participants with a mean follow-up of 4.5 years. Small reductions were observed for atrial fibrillation and/or flutter (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.96-0.98) and supraventricular tachycardia (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.94-0.99) in particular.

Additionally, a mendelian randomization study did not show that caffeine metabolism-related genes modify the relationship between coffee consumption and arrhythmias, reported Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, of University of California San Francisco, and colleagues in JAMA Internal Medicine.

"These data suggest that common prohibitions against caffeine to reduce arrhythmia risk are likely unwarranted," the authors said. They noted that their results are in line with those of other recent studies showing no link between coffee consumption and increased tachyarrhythmias.

Marcus' group cited some potential mechanisms for coffee's observed antiarrhythmic effects in the study, namely its prolongation of left atrial effective refractory periods, blocking of adenosine receptors, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and catecholaminergic properties.

"Overall, the results ... strengthen the evidence that caffeine is not proarrhythmic, but they should not be taken as proving that coffee is an antiarrhythmic -- this distinction is of paramount importance," cautioned Zachary Goldberger, MD, MS, of University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Rodney Hayward, MD, of University of Michigan and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

"Health care professionals can reassure patients that there is no evidence that drinking coffee increases the risk for developing arrhythmias. This is particularly important for the many patients with benign palpitations who are devastated when they think, or are told, that they have to stop drinking coffee," according to their invited commentary.

The U.K. Biobank included more than 500,000 participants. Median coffee consumption was 2 cups per day, though 22.1% did not drink coffee.

Marcus and colleagues counted 386,258 people (mean age 56; 52.3% women; over 90% white) without a prior diagnosis of arrhythmia in their analysis.

People who drank more coffee were more likely to be older, white, and male. As a group, they also tended to report more peripheral artery disease, cancer, smoking, and alcohol drinking.

Study authors acknowledged that residual or unmeasured confounding could not be excluded given the observational nature of their study.

Another major caveat was their reliance on self-reported coffee intake at a single point in time. "Not only can this lead to recall bias, but subsequent and substantial changes in coffee consumption are also possible, including reductions due to new signs or symptoms (i.e., patients with palpitations may avoid coffee)," Goldberger and Hayward warned.

"Finally, it is important to recognize the distinction between coffee and caffeine. Caffeine is only one element of coffee, which contains other bioactive compounds such as diterpene alcohols and chlorogenic acids. As such, the mendelian randomization analysis is truly centered on caffeine, not coffee exposure," the editorialists added.

"The current study suggests that we can tell patients that waking up to a cup of coffee is not a dangerous ritual," they nevertheless maintained." However, it will be more important to listen to patients about their symptoms in association with coffee or caffeine exposure and engage in shared decision-making on an individual level."

• 

  Nicole Lou is a reporter for MedPage Today, where she covers cardiology news and other developments in medicine. Follow

Disclosures

The U.K. Biobank was established by the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, the U.K. Department of Health, and the Scottish Government.

Marcus disclosed receiving grants from Baylis, Medtronic, and Eight Sleep; consulting for Johnson & Johnson and InCarda; and holding equity in InCarda.

Primary Source

JAMA Internal Medicine

Source Reference: Kim E, et al "Coffee consumption and incident tachyarrhythmias: reported behavior, Mendelian randomization, and their interactions" JAMA Intern Med 2021; DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.3616.

Secondary Source

JAMA Internal Medicine

Source Reference: Goldberger ZD and Hayward RA "Another cup of coffee without an arrhythmia, please" JAMA Intern Med 2021; DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.4073.

Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology Consumption of Caffeinated Products and Cardiac Ectopy

But did they consider those studies that have identified a single nugget of our DNA that seems to determine whether we process caffeine quickly or slowly? That, in turn, appears to have a large effect on whether coffee is good for your health.  Sometimes I wonder if anyone in stroke has a thinking cap or is it tin foil.

Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology Consumption of Caffeinated Products and Cardiac Ectopy

1. Shalini Dixit, BA¹;
2. Phyllis K. Stein, PhD²;
3. Thomas A. Dewland, MD³;
4. Jonathan W. Dukes, MD¹;
5. Eric Vittinghoff, PhD¹;
6. Susan R. Heckbert, MD, PhD⁴;
7. Gregory M. Marcus, MD, MAS¹

+ Author Affiliations

1. ¹University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (S.D., J.W.D., E.V., G.M.M.)
2. ²Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (P.K.S.)
3. ³Knight Cardiovascular Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR (T.A.D.)
4. ⁴University of Washington and Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, WA (S.R.H.)

1. Correspondence to:
   Gregory M. Marcus, MD, MAS, 505 Parnassus Ave, M‐1180B, Box 0124, San Francisco, CA 94143‐0124. E‐mail: marcusg@medicine.ucsf.edu

• Received August 5, 2015.
• Accepted December 3, 2015.

• © 2016 The Authors. Published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wiley Blackwell.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

 

Next Section

Abstract

Background Premature cardiac contractions are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Though experts associate premature atrial contractions (PACs) and premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) with caffeine, there are no data to support this relationship in the general population. As certain caffeinated products may have cardiovascular benefits, recommendations against them may be detrimental.

Methods and Results We studied Cardiovascular Health Study participants with a baseline food frequency assessment, 24‐hour ambulatory electrocardiography (Holter) monitoring, and without persistent atrial fibrillation. Frequencies of habitual coffee, tea, and chocolate consumption were assessed using a picture‐sort food frequency survey. The main outcomes were PACs/h and PVCs/hour. Among 1388 participants (46% male, mean age 72 years), 840 (61%) consumed ≥1 caffeinated product per day. The median numbers of PACs and PVCs/h and interquartile ranges were 3 (1–12) and 1 (0–7), respectively. There were no differences in the number of PACs or PVCs/h across levels of coffee, tea, and chocolate consumption. After adjustment for potential confounders, more frequent consumption of these products was not associated with ectopy. In examining combined dietary intake of coffee, tea, and chocolate as a continuous measure, no relationships were observed after multivariable adjustment: 0.48% fewer PACs/h (95% CI −4.60 to 3.64) and 2.87% fewer PVCs/h (95% CI −8.18 to 2.43) per 1‐serving/week increase in consumption.

Conclusions In the largest study to evaluate dietary patterns and quantify cardiac ectopy using 24‐hour Holter monitoring, we found no relationship between chronic consumption of caffeinated products and ectopy.

Introduction

Premature cardiac contractions, otherwise known as atrial and ventricular ectopy, are common throughout the general population.^1–2 Previously, these ectopic beats were believed to be harmless in the absence of known cardiovascular disease or symptoms; however, there is now evidence to indicate that premature atrial contractions (PACs) and premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. PACs are known to initiate paroxysms of atrial fibrillation (AF), and targeted ablation of ectopic foci in the atria can eliminate or significantly reduce AF recurrence.³ In addition, we previously showed that the PAC count is a particularly useful predictor of incident AF in older adults,⁴ and others have demonstrated that increased PACs in apparently healthy individuals are associated with incident AF, stroke, and death.⁵ With regard to PVCs, the presence of even one PVC during a 2‐minute ECG has been associated with an increased risk of incident congestive heart failure (CHF), coronary artery disease (CAD) events, and CAD‐related death.^6–7 Additionally, our group has previously demonstrated that a higher frequency of PVCs is associated with an increase in incident CHF and with increased mortality.⁸ Furthermore, recent evidence from the electrophysiology laboratory has shown that eradication of PVCs via radiofrequency ablation among patients with idiopathic systolic heart failure can normalize ventricular function, suggesting that PVCs alone are sufficient to result in heart failure.⁹

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