Using a fitbit to track Afib burden

Newbie here, so be patient with me if my question was covered previously.

My wife has been treated with Multaq for ten years. (last Holter in July '21 reported a 3% Afib burden). The overwhelming majority of her Afib episodes are "silent" (no pain) and about half have no sense of flutter or palpitations (her descriptive words). Seven months ago she was prescribed a CPAP for her Afib (her AHI was 11 untreated) that she began to use faithfully ever since.

So what we were wondering was, has the CPAP treatment made any difference in the frequency and duration of her Afib.

Her cardiologist suggested buying a Kardia, and that works wonderfully. (went whole hog and bought 6L).

But some of her Afib episodes occurs while she is sleeping (and they don't wake her up), so how to observe those events..

So I purchased a Fitbit Versa 2 to monitor and record her heart rate (as her heart rate suddenly jumps from 50ish to 100 - 120 ish during a Afib episode.. We confirmed that the Fitbit jumps were consistent with her Kardia, and went from there. (Occasionally cross check the Fitbit "jumps" with the Kardia)

With that Fitbit information in hand, we can now chart her Afib episodes day by day, month by month and calculate (or suggest) updated AFIB burden on a monthly basis.

So, and finally, does the community see any flaws in that DIY approach to tracking her Afib burden?

(BTW, lest we go there, my wife does not report any change in her awakeness, or any of the other things that are normally associated with CPAP treatment..... The Dr's stated intent was to "treat" her Afib)

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Searching9
So, and finally, does the community see any flaws in that DIY approach to tracking her Afib burden?

Since you've checked the heart rate signature with the Kardia, this would work. If your wife does a workout, I assume this looks different and you don't count it?

Workout ? What's that? Extra heavy knitting?
We are both in our late 70s

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Searching9
Workout ? What's that? Extra heavy knitting?
We are both in our late 70s

:-).

[Workout ? What's that? Extra heavy knitting
We are both in our late 70s}

That is no excuse, maybe you are being funny?

I have a very big lawn that I cut and roto till a large garden, also have fruit trees and berries, I am 88.

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Elizabeth
[Workout ? What's that? Extra heavy knitting
We are both in our late 70s}

That is no excuse, maybe you are being funny?

I have a very big lawn that I cut and roto till a large garden, also have fruit trees and berries, I am 88.

And it’s remarkable that you do all of this with permanent afib!

Good for you, Liz!

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Elizabeth
[Workout ? What's that? Extra heavy knitting
We are both in our late 70s}

That is no excuse, maybe you are being funny?

I have a very big lawn that I cut and roto till a large garden, also have fruit trees and berries, I am 88.

Wow - that is amazing. Good for you!

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Searching9
So I purchased a Fitbit Versa 2 to monitor and record her heart rate (as her heart rate suddenly jumps from 50ish to 100 - 120 ish during a Afib episode.. We confirmed that the Fitbit jumps were consistent with her Kardia, and went from there. (Occasionally cross check the Fitbit "jumps" with the Kardia)

With that Fitbit information in hand, we can now chart her Afib episodes day by day, month by month and calculate (or suggest) updated AFIB burden on a monthly basis.

So, and finally, does the community see any flaws in that DIY approach to tracking her Afib burden?

(BTW, lest we go there, my wife does not report any change in her awakeness, or any of the other things that are normally associated with CPAP treatment..... The Dr's stated intent was to "treat" her Afib)

When I opened my Fitbit App today, it offered to set up Afib tracing, but only if you have not been diagnosed with Afib. Has anyone “lied” to the software and set this up to test it? I wonder if it is comparable to the Apple Watch tracking?

i bought a Oura Ring today

[ouraring.com]

Continous heart rate monitoring

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GeorgeN

So, and finally, does the community see any flaws in that DIY approach to tracking her Afib burden?


Since you've checked the heart rate signature with the Kardia, this would work. If your wife does a workout, I assume this looks different and you don't count it?

Thanks, Actually she had a 14 day Holter while she was using the Fitbit. I've asked for the Holter report (not yet arrived) and hopefully it will spell out date and time-of-day of her Afib episodes so I can compare that with the HR > 95 as captured by the Fitbit.

I will report back to the forum.

She is not doing any workouts, so I have nothing to discount.

To close out this topic:
Wife had a 14 day Holter monitor while she was monitoring her HR with a Fitbit.
Here is the comparison:
During the 14 day observation period, her Fitbit HR data was suggestive of Afib for a period of 11 hours beginning at 4:45 pm and ending at 3:30am.
Her Holter (same observation period) reported detected Afib for a period of 11.5 hours beginning at 4:50 pm and ending at 3:45 am.

Discussing this with the specialists at the company that does the Holter analysis the conclusion is that:

1) for fast HR Afib, the smart watch gives helpful guidance as to the duration of an Afib episode
2) If the patient is looking to to find month-over-month changes in Afib burden the smart watch is a cheap and helpful device.
3) The smart watch will probably not accurately suggest Afib in the presence of "slow HR Afib".

Finally, her fitbit is a useful tool .... but by no means should be the basis for medication or surgical intervention !

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Searching9
but by no means should be the basis for medication or surgical intervention !

Oh, I promise you no doctor is going to use results from a Fitbit to make any decisions whatsoever. You shouldn't either.

My wife has one and loves it. But she has no cardiac issues and loves it simply for the exercise measuring stuff. I utterly despise it because I'm the "tech support" guy in the house and therefore I know from painful experience what complete junk it is. They fall apart, quit working for unknown reasons, and Fitbit's tech support is non-existent. I wouldn't trust a Fitbit to show me the correct time of day, much less any health data it supposedly measures.

Sorry, rant over, but if you want to know when you're in and out of arrhythmias, get a Kardia. There are other choices discussed at length here in various threads, but the name Fitbit has never come up before.