Atrial fibrillation is a cardiac arrhythmia that affects over 30 million people worldwide. The irregular heartbeat can cause the blood in the atria to clot. If such clots enter the brain and block blood vessels, a stroke occurs. Atrial fibrillation is one of the main causes of stroke in older people.
Experts agree that many strokes could be prevented if atrial fibrillation is recognised at an early stage. A mobile rhythm patch, as tested in the SCREEN-AF study at the DZHK, offers a new approach for the early detection of atrial fibrillation. The patch detects the irregular heartbeat in patients at risk ten times more frequently than conventional diagnostics. This is the result of a new transatlantic study involving researchers from Canada and Germany. The mobile procedure could therefore be suitable for the early detection of atrial fibrillation and thus prevent strokes.