These baskets can detect AFib

A British study found that sensors placed in the handles of baskets can be used to detect atrial fibrillation (AFib). More work is needed to increase the accuracy of the system, but it could be a simple way to screen for heart disease that is not diagnosed regularly.

The challenge: In good health heartthe two upper chambers beat in sync and at a regular rate, but in the estimated 40 million people worldwide with atrial fibrillation, this beating is uncoordinated and usually too fast or too slow.

Atrial fibrillation increases the risk of having stroke fivefold, but take blood-thinning medication can reduce this risk. However, most people with atrial fibrillation have no symptoms and doctors do not filter people asymptomatic of the disorder.

As a result, an estimate 15% of atrial fibrillation cases are not diagnosed.

Atrial fibrillation increases the risk of having a stroke fivefold.

The idea: Looking for a way to reduce the number of undiagnosed cases of atrial fibrillation, researchers at Liverpool John Moores University decided to see if they could incorporate screenings into people’s daily lives.

To that end, they embedded electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors in the handles of 10 shopping carts. For two months they deployed trolleys at four supermarkets in Liverpool to see if they could detect AFib in willing shoppers.

BUY BY: The 2,155 adults who accepted the researchers’ offer to use the carts were asked to grasp the handle for at least 60 seconds while shopping. If the sensor has not detected atrial fibrillation, an indicator lights up green. If it detected the condition, the light turned red.

After each reading, an in-store pharmacist would manually check the person’s pulse. If the sensor had turned red, the pharmacist would also take another ECG reading – this time the customer would still and grab a handle that had a sensor, but was not attached to a cart.

The study’s cardiologist then reviewed the ECG recordings of the 220 people identified as having potential atrial fibrillation by the sensors or pharmacists’ pulse readings. They informed 59 of the buyers that they had atrial fibrillation and scheduled cardiology appointments for the 39 who had not been previously diagnosed.

The cardiologist cleared 115 of the 220 people of the disease, but they could not make a decision one way or the other based on the ECG recordings of the remaining 46 people.

Cold water : The accuracy of this approach needs to be improved. Only 26% of people reported as having atrial fibrillation received a positive diagnosis from the cardiologist – even if you assume the 46 “unclear” results were atrial fibrillation, the positive accuracy was less than 50%

The study authors also believe that their approach is likely lack about half of people with atrial fibrillation do too.

Look forward: The researchers acknowledge the need to make adjustments to their system to improve its accuracy – they think having designated gripping points on the handle could help – but are still optimistic that the method could lead to more diagnoses of atrial fibrillation.

“Within two months, we identified 39 patients who were unaware they had atrial fibrillation,” said study author Ian Jones. “These are 39 people at greater risk of stroke who received an appointment with a cardiologist.”

“Nearly two-thirds of shoppers we approached were happy to use a cart, and the vast majority of those who declined were in a hurry rather than worried about being watched,” he added. “It shows that the concept is acceptable to most people and deserves to be tested in a larger study.”

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