Has anyone tried a personal EKG device?

[Hawkmoon]

Even after heart surgey and on medication(s), I have some irregularities. I don't know how significant they are -- EKGs at my 6-month checkups seem to be mostly normal-ish, at least sufficiently so that the cardiologist isn't concerned. I decided to poke around the internet to see if there are personal EKG devices and, of course, there are. They range in price from around $50 up to nearly $1,000 (if you want to get a real, 12-lead printout).

I absolutely can't afford the high-priced spread, but I found two devices in Amazon that look interesting and are somewhat affordable. They appear to be the same device, offered by two different companies. The price is the same. The difference seems to be the software for printing out the graphs.

Has anyone had any experience with one of these, or do you know anyone who has used either of them? (Or similar devices, for that matter.)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072DVN9GV/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2E0IYS9MARS3C&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DHMGWW3/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A3OH4Z2S1JLTNA&psc=1

[Nick1911]

The problem I've always had with inexpensive measurement equipment that isn't self proving or at least field calibratable is that I don't have confidence in the measurement.

Can I trust that a "good" measurment is actually showing me a good state?
Can I trust that a problematic measurment actually is telling me there's a problem, and that the measurment tool isn't just acting whacy?
How can I verify the measurement tool for accuracy?
How can I verify the measurement tool for precision?
How can I verify the measurement tool for linearity?
How can I verify the measurement tool for drift?
How can I know the tolerance of the displayed measurement?

[BobR]

The problem with those (from my perspective) is they are single lead devices. It most likely only picks up a lead 2 trace, the inferior part of your left ventricle. A true 12 lead picks up a lot of different things a single lead won't just because of the different planes it is looking at.  A single lead may tell you if you are have an arrhythmia but so will your body. If you are feeling something and you don't feel right it is time to visit the ER or your cardiologist, by ambulance if necessary. If you are truly concerned that your cardiologist may be missing something during your semi-annual 12 leads ask him to put you on a 30 day monitor so you can tag the arrhythmias you feel for him to look at.

You would probably be better off spending your money on ammo or something else you may need.

My 2 cents.

bob

[AmbulanceDriver]

Hooboy.  Where to start....

 There's a reason when we're doing ECG's out in the field, or in the hospital, etc we use self-adhesive leads.  Muscle movement/tension introduces a *lot* of artifact and noise.  There's a reason why when we're doing a 12 lead, we want the patient to lay back, sit still, and breathe shallow.

I mean, yeah, you'll spot if you're in tachycardia or bradycardia, but I wouldn't trust that thing to pick up anything more critical than a heart rate.

[lupinus]

It might at best pick up an increased heart rate from the stress of realizing money has been pissed away.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Hawkmoon]

I'm bringing this back for an update. I bought the Emay device for Windows from Amazon. It's easy to use, but (as was suggested) it is sensitive to how it's held, and it gives funky readings if I move around during the scan interval (which I have set to 15 seconds). As I use it more, the readings are becoming better as I have learned how to hold it without inducing movement errors.

It turned out to be a blessing because my cardiologist's office isn't doing face-to-face office visits these days, due to the COVID-19. My six-month follow-up today was a telephone appointment. Thanks to the portable EKG, an automated blood pressure machine I have from the VA hospital, and a personal pulse oximeter (also from Amazon), I was able to e-mail complete vital signs and an EKG printout to the doctor for him to look at when we spoke.

He was VERY pleased with the EKG. Not just that mine didn't show any problems, but also with the fact that this little toy actually produces useful results. He said the readout was properly formatted and he was able to read it without any hiccups. Had there been a problem, I guess the next step would have been to have me come in for a real 12-lead ECG, but for routine follow-ups this device seems to be more than good enough.

I'm glad I bought it.

[MikeB]

I have one on my Apple Watch. I've played with it a few times. I didn't buy the watch for that reason. It seems to work, Doctor asked about it when they saw the watch and thought it was good, obviously not the same as a real machine, but supposed to provide decent early indicators of some issues. I've never had heart issues that I'm aware of though so I've only been hooked up to a real one once or twice that I can think of.

[Unisaw]

When my wife was seriously ill (suspected COVID-19) in late January/early February, she told me that her heartbeat felt funny.  I slapped my Apple Watch on her and the EKG function indicated she was in a-fib.  Off to the ER we went.  About 30 minutes later, a 12-lead EKG confirmed she was in a-fib.  Roughly two hours after that, she underwent a cardioversion to restore normal sinus rhythm.  After experiencing a-fib myself, I had upgraded my Apple watch specifically to have access to the new EKG function.

[Hawkmoon]

Cardioversions aren't fun. Been there, done that -- half a dozen times.

[Unisaw]

Cardioversions aren't fun. Been there, done that -- half a dozen times.

I’ve had it done twice.  The second time, I needed 2 jolts and ended up with slight burns.  The doc let me watch my wife’s procedure — it wasn’t as violent as I expected.

To get back to the original question, I’m a fan of the EKG function of the Apple Watch.