The University of Turku and CardioSignal company have developed a new technology that uses a smartphone to analyze heart movement and detect heart failure. Five organizations from Finland and the United States were involved in the study. Heart failure is a serious condition that affects millions of people globally, preventing the heart from pumping blood effectively through the body due to various cardiovascular issues.
Some chronic diseases may lead to frequent hospital visits due to their symptoms.
Heart failure can be difficult to diagnose because its symptoms, like difficulty breathing, unusual tiredness during physical activity, and swelling, can be caused by various conditions. There is no simple test for detecting it, so diagnosis relies on a doctor’s examination, blood tests, and advanced imaging, such as an ultrasound of the heart.
Gyrocardiography is a non-invasive method for measuring heart vibrations on the chest. The motion sensors in a smartphone can detect and record these vibrations, including those that doctors may not be able to detect.A new method for detecting heart failure using smartphone motion sensors has been developed over the past decade by researchers at the University of Turku and CardioSignal. Their most recent study, conducted at the Turku and Helsinki University Hospitals in Finland and Stanford University Hospital in the US, involved approximately 1,000 participants, 200 of whom had heart failure. The study compared the data from the motion sensors in heart failure patients to those without heart disease. The researchers are optimistic about the promising results obtained from this new method.Cardiologist Antti Saraste, a key author of the study and a Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Turku, Finland, believes that using motion sensor data from smartphones could help in the early detection of heart failure.
Important findings on heart failure detection
The study concluded that heart failure is linked to specific changes in smartphone motion sensor data. By analyzing this data, the researchers were successful in identifying most of the patients with heart failure.
The gyroscope and aThe accelerometer is incredibly precise, and in the future, it may be used by healthcare professionals to quickly and easily detect heart failure. “Primary healthcare currently has very limited tools for detecting heart failure. We can develop entirely new treatment options for monitoring at-risk groups remotely and for monitoring patients who have already been diagnosed after being hospitalized,” said CardioSignal’s CEO and founder, cardiologist Juuso Blomster. Heart failure affects approximately 1-2% of the population in Finland, in line with several European countries, but it is much more prevalent in older adults, affecting about one in ten people over the age of 70.0. It is crucial to detect heart failure because effective treatment can help alleviate its symptoms. Accurate diagnosis and timely treatment access can also decrease healthcare costs, which are often inflated by emergency room visits and hospital stays, particularly during exacerbations.
The collaborative research projects between CardioSignal and the University of Turku are focused on improving people’s health and reducing healthcare costs through innovation, enhanced disease diagnostics, and prevention of severe complications.
