Remote monitoring of atrial fibrillation recurrence using mHealth technology (REMOTE-AF)
Gamith Adasuriya, Andrey Barsky, Ines Kralj‐Hans, Siddhartha Mohan, Simrat Gill, Zhong Chen, Julian W.E. Jarman, David G. Jones, Haseeb Valli, Georgios V. Gkoutos, Vias Markides, Wajid Hussain, Tom Wong, Dipak Kotecha, Shouvik Haldar
Abstract
Abstract Aims This proof-of-concept study sought to evaluate changes in heart rate (HR) obtained from a consumer wearable device and compare against implantable loop recorder (ILR)-detected recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial tachycardia (AT) after AF ablation. Methods and results REMOTE-AF (NCT05037136) was a prospectively designed sub-study of the CASA-AF randomized controlled trial (NCT04280042). Participants without a permanent pacemaker had an ILR implanted at their index ablation procedure for longstanding persistent AF. Heart rate and step count were continuously monitored using photoplethysmography (PPG) from a commercially available wrist-worn wearable. Photoplethysmography-recorded HR data were pre-processed with noise filtration and episodes at 1-min interval over 30 min of HR elevations (Z-score = 2) were compared with corresponding ILR data. Thirty-five patients were enrolled, with mean age 70.3 ± 6.8 years and median follow-up 10 months (interquartile range 8–12 months). Implantable loop recorder analysis revealed 17 out of 35 patients (49%) had recurrence of AF/AT. Compared with ILR recurrence, wearable-derived elevations in HR ≥ 110 beats per minute had a sensitivity of 95.3%, specificity 54.1%, positive predictive value (PPV) 15.8%, negative predictive value (NPV) 99.2%, and overall accuracy 57.4%. With PPG-recorded HR elevation spikes (non-exercise related), the sensitivity was 87.5%, specificity 62.2%, PPV 39.2%, NPV 92.3%, and overall accuracy 64.0% in the entire patient cohort. In the AF/AT recurrence only group, sensitivity was 87.6%, specificity 68.3%, PPV 53.6%, NPV 93.0%, and overall accuracy 75.0%. Conclusion Consumer wearable devices have the potential to contribute to arrhythmia detection after AF ablation. Study Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05037136 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05037136