• Felix K Wegner, Simon Kochhäuser, Christian Ellermann, Philipp S Lange, Gerrit Frommeyer, Patrick Leitz, Lars Eckardt, and Dirk G Dechering.
• Department of Electrophysiology, University Hospital Muenster, Muenster, Germany. Electronic address: felix.wegner@ukmuenster.de.
• Eur. J. Intern. Med. 2020 Mar 1; 73: 72-75.

IntroductionThe AliveCor Kardia ECG monitor (ACK) offers a smartphone-based one-lead ECG recording for the detection of atrial fibrillation. We compared ACK lead I recordings with the 12-lead ECG and introduce a novel parasternal lead (NPL).MethodsConsecutive cardiac inpatients were recruited. In all patients a 12-lead ECG, ACK lead I and NPL were obtained. Two experienced electrophysiologists were blinded and separately evaluated all ECG. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of the ACK ECG compared to the 12-lead ECG.Results296 ECG from 99 patients (38 female, age 64 ± 15 years, BMI 27.8 ± 5.1 kg/m2) were analyzed. 20% of ACK lead I recordings contained a critical amount of artifact. The electrophysiologists' interpretation of the ACK recordings yielded a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 94% for atrial fibrillation or flutter in lead I (κ = 0.90) and a sensitivity of 96% and specificity of 97% in the NPL (κ = 0.92). The ACK diagnostic algorithm displayed a significantly lower sensitivity (55-70%), specificity (60-69%), and accuracy (κ = 0.4-0.53) but a high negative predictive value (100%). Patients with atrial flutter (n = 5) and with ventricular stimulation (n = 12) had a high likelihood of being misclassified by the algorithm.ConclusionThe AliveCor Kardia ECG monitor allows a highly accurate detection of atrial fibrillation by an interpreting electrophysiologist both in the standard lead I and a novel parasternal lead. The diagnostic algorithm offered by the system may be useful in screening recordings for further review. Diagnostic challenges present in atrial flutter and ventricular pacemaker stimulation.Copyright © 2019 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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