DALLAS - A smart-technology wearable wristband may be able to automatically detect cardiac arrest, potentially leading to faster medical assistance and increased survival odds when cardiac arrest occurs outside of a hospital, according to new research published today in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Heart Association.
The DETECT‑1b study analyzed data from 49 adults in the Netherlands with abnormal heart rhythms who underwent a medical procedure in which a life-threatening heart rhythm was briefly induced. Pulseless ventricular tachycardia (pVT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) was induced during treatment. The algorithm‑based wearable wristband detected cardiac arrest in 92% of cases: 100% of ventricular fibrillation and 90% of pulseless ventricular tachycardia.
“Our findings are important because many out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are unwitnessed. A smart technology wristband capable of automatically detecting cardiac arrest and triggering an alert could function as a digital witness,” said study senior author Judith Bonnes, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist at the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, Netherlands. “With the device automatically notifying emergency services or nearby trained responders, help could arrive sooner, which may significantly improve survival chances.”
The device uses a light-based technique (photoplethysmography algorithm) to measure changes in blood flow in the wrist. This approach differs from previous methods because it allows continuous and unobtrusive monitoring in daily life, said lead study author Roos Edgar, M.Sc., a technical physician at Radboud University Medical Center. Many commercially available smart watches use similar sensors, but most are not designed to detect cardiac arrest.
“This is the first study to externally validate such an algorithm using patient data, which is an important step toward developing a reliable detection system for real-world use,” she said.
In a future application, the algorithm could alert nearby lay rescuers and emergency services when cardiac arrest is detected. “The goal is to connect the wristband to emergency dispatch centers and volunteer responder networks in the Netherlands so that nearby rescuers and ambulance services can be alerted immediately,” Bonnes said.
Cameron Dezfulian, M.D., FAHA, chair of the American Heart Association’s Resuscitation Science Symposium Program Committee, who was not involved in the study, said the results are exciting, particularly the low frequency of false positives. “This study parallels findings from a study in Canada and one in the U.S. that shows this technology has great potential,” he said. However, he noted that pulseless electrical activity remains the most common presenting rhythm in cardiac arrest and accounts for a small portion of validation data for such sensors, emphasizing the need for further research.
The research was conducted in a controlled clinical setting, which is a limitation. The system’s effectiveness and reliability in real-world conditions still need evaluation in future studies. The DETECT-1b study included 49 adults (median age 66 years, 84% men) wearing the smart wristband while undergoing ventricular tachycardia ablation or subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation. Researchers assessed more than 125 hours of the algorithm’s data for cardiac arrest alerts. The research is part of the broader DETECT project, a collaboration of several hospitals and a company in the Netherlands.