Screening for Atrial Fibrillation Using a Single Lead ECG Monitoring Device

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia which needs management for stroke prevention. Therefore, it has emphasized the importance of screening for general population to detect AF earlier. We conducted screening for AF in the Chonbuk region in South Korea. Participants who were older than 50 years were enrolled. The screening test used a single lead electrocardiography (ECG) (KardiaBand, AliveCor, CA, USA). Diagnosis of AF was confirmed by electrophysiologists, if the single lead ECG demonstrated AF of more than 30 seconds. We analyzed the prevalence of AF and the characteristics of newly detected AF patients. A total of 2728 participants, 145 (5.3%) participants had already been diagnosed with AF before. The number of screening positive was 55. Among them, 40 participants were confirmed for AF. Male gender and age older than 70 years were the independent risk factors for AF among the screening positive participants. Most of newly detected AF patients were at high risk for stroke which had more than 2 points on the CHA2DS2-VASc score. We followed up with those patients and encouraged them to visit the hospital. As a result, 31 (77.5%) patients started to manage AF. The additional 1.2% of AF was detected by a screening test with a single lead ECG monitor device. Considering most participants of newly detected AF by screening were at high risk for stroke, it was thought that AF was still undertreated. Therefore, screening tests with simple mobile device might be useful for early detection of AF.