A new cardiac monitoring system, theACT (Ambulatory Cardiac Telemetry) from LifeWatch AG was approved to go on the market in 2015. It consists of two physical units: a small pendant with four cardiac electrodes and a smartphone programmed to be the data pre-processor and communications link to the company’s monitoring centers. The pendant is unobtrusive and can be worn day and night, a big plus for comprehensive monitoring.
You wear the small, lightweight pendant and electrodes on your chest to record and do preliminary analysis on your heart’s rhythm. It communicates with the smartphone via Bluetooth; the connection set-up and initialization between the two is automatic with no user action needed. If an arrhythmia is detected, the cell phone automatically sends the data to a monitoring center for review and doctor notification, if required. Data from the pendant is also sent periodically to the smartphone and then to the central office, so it can be seen by a doctor in near-real time during the 30-day monitoring period
Technically speaking:
- Auto-detection of A-Fib, Tachycardia, Bradycardia and Pause
- Daily Summary and End of Session reports with A-Fib Burden, Heart rate histogram and arrhythmia statistics
- Extended ECG analysis surrounding any episode (on request)
- Full Disclosure analysis (on request)
- Can be used as 24-48 hour Holter (ACT Ex) and up to 30 days of extended Mobile Cardiac Telemetry monitoring
The LifeWatch MCT monitor is the only 3-channel Mobile Cardiac Telemetry device on the market, which provides additional views of the heart.
The pendant of the Ambulatory Cardiac Telemetry (ACT) from LifeWatch AG measures 6 × 8 cm × 1 cm thick, weighs 60 grams, and operates from a single Li-SOCl2 AA battery for about four days.
The entire system comes to the patient by mail (no need to go to a doctor’s office) in a small box that has the sensor pendant, dedicated cell phone, and about a dozen AA-size lithium batteries (high-energy lithium thionyl chloride [Li-SOCl2] chemistry) and about 100 patch electrode. Set-up consists of following some simple instructions; and you also call in to a customer center so they can make sure everything is done correctly as they remotely monitor what you have done. After 30 days of monitoring, the patient places the hardware in a pre-paid express-mail envelope and sends it back—again, no need to go to the doctor.
SOURCES – Eetimes, Lifewatch
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