Excellent symptom rhythm correlation in patients with palpitations using a novel Smartphone based event recorder

BACKGROUND: Definitive diagnosis of arrhythmia relies on "symptom-rhythm correlation" when electrocardiographic (ECG) evidence of the patient's cardiac rhythm is obtained at the time of symptoms. The AliveCor smartphone App and device (AliveCor Inc, California, USA) has recently been introduced as an easy to use cardiac event recorder. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the smartphone based event recorder could be effectively used to achieve symptom rhythm correlation in unselected patients with palpitations. METHODS: 20 patients (13 female, mean age 35±16 years) underwent evaluation of their palpitations for 12 weeks using 2nd generation AliveCor monitors. RESULTS: Symptom rhythm correlation was achieved in 85% of patients with 45% detecting an arrhythmia. Of a total of 966 ECGs available for review 96% were interpretable. CONCLUSION: The novel smartphone based event recorder is an efficient tool for achieving symptom rhythm correlation in patients with palpitations. By utilising their Smartphone, ECG recording is easily and readily accessible to patients when palpitations occur.