New app’s stroke warning

RESEARCHERS have developed a new mobile application that can detect atrial fibrillation, a leading cause of stroke, and can timely prevent heart-related complications.

Atrial fibrillation is an irregular and often rapid heart rate that can increase the risk of stroke, heart failure and heart-related complications.

Timely detection of atrial fibrillation is crucial for effective stroke prevention.

“This is the first time that ordinary consumer electronics have achieved such reliable results that they can actually be beneficial for the patient’s medical care,” said co-author Juhani Airaksinen, professor of cardiology at Turku University Hospital in Finland.

“The results are remarkable, as intermittent atrial fibrillation is not always detected even at the doctor’s office,” Airaksinen added.

Detecting atrial fibrillation has been a worldwide medical challenge for years but affordable solutions for all have been lacking, the researcher added.

For the study, published in the journal Circulation, researchers studied 300 patients with heart problems, half of whom had atrial fibrillation.

Researchers managed to identify the patients with atrial fibrillation from the other group with a smartphone. The application, developed at the department of future technologies at the University of Turku can detect patients with atrial fibrillation to up to 96% accuracy, the researchers said.

“The results are significant in that the group included different kinds of patients, some of whom had heart failure, coronary disease, and ventricular extrasystole at the same time,” said the department’s Tero Koivisto. – IANS/African News Agency (ANA)