Smartphone app could be used for mass screening of atrial fibrillation

A smartphone app, combined with a hand-held wireless ECG, could feasibly be used to test for atrial fibrillation (AF), research published online in the journal Heart has suggested. The method is cheap and accessible and so might be particularly useful for systematic mass screening, given that the condition was silent in around two-thirds of newly diagnosed cases, the authors stated. Participants were recruited to this community screening programme as a result of media campaigns and posters in community hubs. For the study researchers tested more than 13,000 adults in Hong Kong for AF between May 2014 and April 2015, using…