Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Smartphone ECG accuracy for heart rate in dogs with atrial
By Gunasekaran, T et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary cardiology : the official journal of the European Society of Veterinary Cardiology·2025·Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Assessment of heart rate measurements obtained from smartphone electrocardiography as compared to 24-h Holter monitoring in dogs with atrial fibrillation.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 11 dogs with atrial fibrillation (AF) had their heart rates measured using both a smartphone electrocardiogram (ECG) and a 24-hour Holter monitor. The smartphone ECG tended to underestimate the heart rate by an average of about 7 beats per minute when using attached electrodes, and about 2.6 beats per minute with manually placed electrodes. While the smartphone method wasn't as accurate as the Holter monitor, it could still effectively identify dogs with heart rates above or below 125 beats per minute. This means that while smartphone ECGs can be useful, they should not replace more accurate monitoring methods like Holter monitoring.
People also search for: dog atrial fibrillation treatment · smartphone ECG for dogs · heart rate monitoring in dogs
Abstract
INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of smartphone electrocardiogram (ECG) to estimate heart rate (HR) in dogs with atrial fibrillation (AF) and assess its agreement with the 24-h mean HR obtained from continuous ambulatory electrocardiography (Holter monitoring). ANIMALS, MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eleven dogs were fitted with a Holter monitor, while owners recorded 5-min ECGs using smartphone application-based electrodes, both attached and manually placed. Recordings were analyzed for the application's QRS detection accuracy. Bland-Altman and bias plots compared smartphone-derived HR with Holter-derived HR. Receiver operating characteristic analysis assessed the smartphone ECG's ability to differentiate between 24-h mean HRs above or below 125 beats per min (bpm). RESULTS: The smartphone ECG underestimated HR due to undersensing of QRS complexes by a mean of 7.15 bpm (standard deviation = 22.13) for the attached electrode and 2.6 bpm (standard deviation = 6.09) for the manually placed electrode. Bland-Altman analysis showed poor agreement, with a differential bias of -34.69 bpm (95% confidence interval = -73.25, 3.86) and proportional bias of 1.25 bpm (95% confidence interval = 0.988, 1.50). Receiver operating characteristic analysis identified a smartphone HR threshold of 122.5 bpm with 100% sensitivity and 99.96% specificity for distinguishing 24-h mean HRs above or below 125 bpm. STUDY LIMITATIONS: The limitations of this study were the small sample size of large-breed dogs and limited generalizability to all AF etiologies. CONCLUSIONS: Smartphone ECG underestimated HR in dogs with AF and showed poor agreement with Holter-derived HR. However, it may help identify dogs with 24-h mean HR above or below 125 bpm.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40897129/