The new technology, which was created at the University of Turku and developed by the company CardioSignal, uses a smartphone to analyze the movement of the heart and detect heart failure. Five organizations from Finland and the USA participated in the study.
Heart failure is a condition affecting tens of millions of people worldwide in which the heart is unable to perform its normal function of pumping blood around the body. This is a serious condition that develops as a result of a number of cardiovascular diseases, and its symptoms may require re-hospitalization.
Heart failure is challenging to diagnose because its symptoms, such as shortness of breath, unusual fatigue with exertion, and swelling, can be caused by a number of conditions. There is no simple test available to detect it, and diagnosis relies on a doctor’s examination, blood tests and sophisticated imaging such as an ultrasound scan of the heart.
Gyrocardiography is a non-invasive technique for measuring heart vibrations in the chest. Motion sensors built into smartphones can detect and record these vibrations, including those that doctors can’t hear with a stethoscope. The method was developed over the past 10 years by researchers from the University of Turku and CardioSignal.
The researchers’ latest study of using smartphone motion sensors to detect heart failure was conducted at Turku and Helsinki University Hospitals in Finland and Stanford University Hospital in the US. About 1,000 people participated in the study, of which about 200 were patients with heart failure. The study compared the data provided by the motion sensors in patients with heart failure and patients without heart disease.
“The results we obtained with this new method are promising and may in the future facilitate the detection of heart failure,” says cardiologist Antti Saraste, one of the two lead authors of the research paper and professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Turku, Finland. .
Accurate detection reveals heart failure
The researchers found that heart failure was associated with typical changes in motion sensor data collected from a smartphone. Based on these data, researchers were able to identify most patients with heart failure.
The analysis of movements detected by the gyroscope and accelerometer is so accurate that in the future it could provide healthcare professionals with a quick and easy way to detect heart failure.
Primary care has very limited tools to detect heart failure. We can create completely new treatment options for remote monitoring of at-risk groups and for monitoring already diagnosed patients after hospitalization.”
Juuso Blomster, Cardiologist, CardioSignal Founder and CEO
In line with several European countries, heart failure affects around 1-2% of the population in Finland, but is much more common in older people, affecting around one in ten people over the age of 70. Detecting heart failure is important because effective treatment can help alleviate its symptoms. Accurate diagnosis and timely access to treatment can also reduce health care costs, which are increased by emergency room visits and hospital stays, especially during exacerbations.
The joint research projects between CardioSignal and the University of Turku aim to promote people’s health and reduce healthcare costs through innovation, improved disease diagnosis and prevention of serious complications.
source:
University of Turku
Journal reference:
Haddad, F., and others. (2024). Smartphone-based recognition of heart failure using microelectromechanical sensors. JACC. Heart failure. doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2024.01.022.
