Ecg

[Bazile]

This advert on TV for taking your own ECG - Kardiomobile I think

So , who interprets the result ?
And surely it's not accurate is it ?

[Sqad]

Yes, its a must have for Christmas, a future aid to the non medical and an aid to the medics.
A copy could be sent directly to the Cardiac Dept.
It is accurate for what it does, I wouldn't buy one, expensive, but it should sell well.

[Mamyalynne]

Looks extremely simple to use and if £100 spent would give you piece of mind than it's not bad - not something I'd buy.

[Peter Pedant]

erm - - I think that is a surgeon talking

[Bazile]

//A copy could be sent directly to the Cardiac Dept.//

[Bazile]

^^^
Which cardiac dept ?

[Sqad]

Whichever one you want, your local one or one organised by the company.

[Bazile]

So , if your taking your own ECG , you can't interpret the result .

So do you take it once a week say and then send it to this company to analyse .
After all it's not like taking your own blood pressure , where you know if a reading is high or low

[Karolina82]

It could be the best and most accurate ECG ever.
However a specialist needs to interpret the results.

[Mamyalynne]

Baz, the readout comes up on your phone screen and it flags up any irregular rhythm, at that point you'd contact your GP I presume for a referral.

Have you checked this product out?

[rowanwitch]

I am always wary of ecgs with inbuilt interpretation. The one in my GP practice said MI when it wasn't so the youngish doctor who didn't seem have the skills to check it had me wasting a long and boring day in A and E.

[Mamyalynne]

This is from three years ago, I don't know what happened later or if it was rolled out over a wider area.

https://digitalhealth.london/nhs-keeps-finger-pulse-rollout-innovative-kardiamobile-accelerate-diagnosis-potentially-fatal-heart-rhythm-condition/

[Sqad]

rowan it is hardly a diagnostic tool and basically diagnosis AF which could be dangerous.
ECG changes in MI are not the only pointer to a heart attack and with this machine it doesn't offer sophisticated diagnostic facilities.
The Americans have been using something similar for 20years plus.

[rowanwitch]

Just af, hardly seems worth it, wasn't there a similar one being advertised a few years ago,
Don't think there was much take up, as it wasn't advertised for long.

[Buenchico]

If all the device doses is to flag up an irregular rhythm, you might just as well buy a cheap blood pressure monitor. Most seem to check for arrhythmia every time you use them. (Mine certainly does. It kept finding it too during my radiotherapy, which is known to increase b.p. and to induce minor arrhythmia in some patients, but things seem to be back to normal now in that respect).

[Peter Pedant]

anyone contributing to this column
should have read schamroth and passed an exam

I liked Rowans con - this machine can be a complete time waster

[Peter Pedant]

// If all the device does, is to flag up an irregular rhythm, you might just as well buy a cheap blood pressure monitor.//

well yes if...
but an ECG can do much more - but it is like an X ray - you can't just point it at someone and blap - cured!

every GP in america had a fluoroscope in their officers in the fifties....