Wearable Devices: A Future Useful Tool for Detection of Silent Ischemia in Patients with Diabetes?

Abstract

As smartphone health care technology continues to evolve, many wearable devices are equipped with Electrocardiographic (ECG) recording. Recently, studies examining the possibility of various wearable devices for continuous ECG recording showed their ability to detect ST-segment alterations. It is known that in almost a quarter of people with diabetes, the presentation of an acute coronary syndrome may be atypical or even asymptomatic (“silent”), and it has been associated with adverse prognosis. The precise mechanisms behind the lack of pain in patients suffering from silent myocardial ischemia remain unknown. The attractive hypothesis that clinicians could use a wearable ECG recording to detect and treat earlier patients suffering from silent myocardial ischemia might change the adverse prognosis of those patients. However, before their clinical application, several obstacles should be overcome in order the physicians to obtain an additional powerful tool in the fight against coronary artery disease in people with diabetes.