Arrhythmias Beyond Atrial Fibrillation Detection Using Smartwatches: A Systematic Review

Background: Over the past few years, smartwatches have become increasingly popular in the monitoring of arrhythmias. Although the detection of atrial fibrillation with smartwatches has been the subject of various articles, there is no comprehensive research on the detection of arrhythmias other than atrial fibrillation. In this study, we included individual cases from the literature to identify the characteristics of patients with smartwatch-detected arrhythmias other than atrial fibrillation.

Methods: PubMed, Embase, and SCOPUS were searched for case reports, case series, or cohort studies that reported individual participant-level data, until January 6, 2022. The following search string was used for each databases: (“Smart Watch” OR “Apple Watch” OR “Samsung Gear”) AND (“Supraventricular Tachycardia” OR “Cardiac Arrhythmia” OR “Ventricular Tachycardia” OR “Atrioventricular Nodal Reentry Tachycardia” OR “Atrioventricular Reentrant Tachycardia” OR “Heart Block” OR “Atrial Flutter” OR “Ectopic Atrial Tachycardia” OR “Bradyarrhythmia”).

Results: A total of 52 studies from PubMed, 20 studies from Embase, and 200 studies from SCOPUS were identified. After screening, 18 articles were included. A total of 22 patients were obtained from 14 case reports or case series. Four cohort studies evaluating various arrhythmias were included. Arrhythmias, including ventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia, atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia, second- or third-degree atrioventricular block, and sinus bradycardia, were detected with smartwatches.

Conclusions: Cardiac arrhythmias other than atrial fibrillation are also commonly detected with smartwatches. Smartwatches have an important potential besides traditional methods in the detection of arrhythmias and clinical practice.