Diagnosing the early stages of heart failure may soon be as simple as placing a smartphone on a patient's chest, according to an ongoing study. The aim is to develop an app capable of detecting this potentially life-threatening condition at its onset.

Initially, heart failure may manifest as fatigue during physical activity or shortness of breath, symptoms that could stem from various causes. Presently, diagnosing heart failure typically involves ultrasound heart scans, blood tests, or specialized procedures. However, researchers from the University of Turku in Finland sought to create a simpler diagnostic method that could be swiftly performed in a doctor's office without requiring specialized equipment. The outcome is a machine-learning-based app that utilizes a smartphone's accelerometer and gyroscope to measure subtle cardiac vibrations in the patient's chest.[1]

Figure 1. Monitoring Cardiac Vibrations: Simply Place the Phone on the Patient's Chest

Figure 1 shows monitoring Cardiac Vibrations: Simply Place the Phone on the Patient's Chest. Developed in collaboration with Helsinki and Stanford universities, the app underwent testing with 1,003 volunteer patients across hospitals affiliated with all three institutions. Of these patients, 217 had already received a heart failure diagnosis, while the remaining 786 served as healthy controls. By analysing the chest vibration data collected by the app, researchers identified specific characteristics associated with heart failure. After training the app with this data, it demonstrated an 89% accuracy rate in identifying individuals with the condition—a figure expected to improve as the software gains access to more extensive datasets.

Juuso Blomster, a cardiologist and CEO of Cardio Signal, the company commercializing the app, highlighted the limited diagnostic tools available in primary healthcare for detecting heart failure. He emphasized the potential of the app to offer new treatment options for remote monitoring of high-risk groups and post-hospitalization monitoring of diagnosed patients.[2]

The findings of the research were detailed in a recently published paper in the journal JACC: Heart Failure. Previous apps, such as Cordio Hear and Cardio Rhythm, detect heart failure using the user's voice and changes in facial colour, respectively

References:

1. https://newatlas.com/medical/cardiosignal-heart-failure-app/
2. https://www.utu.fi/en/news/press-release/researchers-developed-new-method-for-detecting-heart-failure-with-a-smartphone

Cite this article:

Gokila G (2024), App Utilizes Smartphone Sensors to Detect Heart Failure Signals, AnaTechMaz, pp.153