Apple Watch & SVT

Posted by 1950a @1950a, Apr 7 2:12pm

After a hospital stay for pneumonia, my family doctor suspected I was having Afib episodes so she had me wear a monitor for 7 days and prescribed Eliquis to reduce my risk of stroke. The monitor found no evidence of Afib/flutter episodes but recorded over 50,000 supraventricular tachacardia (SVT) episodes. During this time, I used the Apple watch ECG app and it also found no Afib episodes. I can clearly see the evidence of SVT as my heart rate speeds up and slows down on the ECG graph.

The question I have is why does the health app on my phone report an Afib burden percentage if I'm not having any Afib episodes? The first week it showed a burden of 57%, second week 40%, third week 23%. I'd like to believe it's responding to the SVT episodes and if so, I like what I'm seeing. I don't have any symptoms associated with the SVT so I don't know if it is actually lessening. A few months ago, I ended a 15 month period of Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT) using Lupron injections for prostate cancer and I'm hoping the SVT is related to that treatment and will continue to diminish as my testosterone and red blood cells slowly increase. Am I barking up the wrong tree here?

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JT1959 | @jefftalley | Apr 9 8:44am

I have had a similar experience with my Apple Watch. My cardiologist at Mayo Jacksonville said that the Apple Watch is interpreting premature atrial contractions as afib. I have a PAC load of 10-12% and no afib, and my weekly Apple Watch reports state I have afib anywhere from 7% to 25%. I have tried to "break the code" and figure out why this number changes so dramatically from week to week - I have deliberately modified my exercise routine, caffeine and alcohol intake (always minor) with no effect. The Apple watch doesn't check for afib constantly, so my guess is there is some randomness as to whether someone is having afib, PACs, or in your case SVT when it happens to check. I continue to track my results, but I'm not sure it's giving me actionable data.

1950a | @1950a | Apr 10 9:09pm

Thanks for the info. Probably good to remember it’s a watch, not medical diagnostic equipment!

sport67 | @sport67 | Apr 12 9:13am

I have a similar experience with Apple Watch. It reported episodes of Afib. This morning it says I had irregular heart beats yesterday. Went right to my doctor and he looked up the statistics on Apple Watch accuracy. 10 out of 15 reports of Afib are false. I was having PAC so it does recognize irregular heart beats. I had an ECG and am wearing a Zio patch for 2 weeks to monitor heart. My heart rate is also higher than usual by 10+ beats not sure if that has any significance.

sport67 | @sport67 | Apr 14 10:03am

In reply to @jefftalley "I have had a similar experience with my Apple Watch. My cardiologist at Mayo Jacksonville said..." + (show)

I have the series 10 Apple Watch. It seems to record more accurately. Now I he messages that say I am having irregular heartbeats that could be A fib. I think you are correct that it is recording PAC’s.

nevets | @nevets | Apr 15 10:30am

In reply to @sport67 "I have the series 10 Apple Watch. It seems to record more accurately. Now I he..." + (show)

I have a series 8 Apple Watch. I believe when setting up your Apple Watch, if you enter that you have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, it processes data somewhat differently. It will provide periodic reports of your afib burden, and will not alert you whenever it senses irregular heartbeats. It also shows you what time of the day your afib burden was highest as well as which days of the week, although I'm not really sure how useful that information is? Regarding afib burden, the lowest level it will report is "2% or less", even if your afib burden is 0.

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