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A Case Report of Long-Term Wireless Electrocardiographic Monitoring in a Dog with Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Authors:
Maja Brložnik at University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna
Maja Brložnik
V Avbelj
V Avbelj
V Avbelj
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Wireless electrocardiographic (ECG) sensor attached to the skin and connected to a smart device via low power Bluetooth technology has been used to record more than 500 hours of ECG data in a German shepherd dog with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Wireless ECG monitoring has been used for a period of 6 months. With the wireless body electrodes, the ECG data were obtained while the dog was resting, walking, playing and eating. Atrial fibrillation, ventricular premature complexes, occasional ventricular tachycardia and multiform ventricular beats were observed. Numerous standard 6-lead ECG recordings have been compared to the recordings obtained with wireless body electrodes. Instantaneous and average heart rates and standard duration measurements evaluated with the two devices were identical in all cases. The extended ECG monitoring time with the wireless device increased the diagnostic yield of arrhythmias. The dog was treated with diuretics, positive inotropes, ACE inhibitor and antiarrhythmics for 2 years. Influence of various drugs, dog's activities, and environmental factors on ECG data was investigated. During the 6 months period dog's condition was changing substantially and long term ECG monitoring excluded arrhythmias as the cause for dog's weakness. The wireless device, which proved to be reliable and simple to use, enables an excellent option of long-term monitoring of canine cardiac rhythm in real-world environment.
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... They include wireless communication technology, are simple to use and are reported to have high reliability in human medicine (Barret et al. 2014, Higgins 2013, Lobodzinski 2013, Rosenberg et al. 2013, Schreiber et al. 2014, Schrivastav et al. 2014, Turakhia et al. 2013, Fung et al. 2015. In veterinary medicine, handheld wireless monitors are already used for a few-minute-long screening of patients for reliable assessment of heart rate and differentiation of various arrhythmias (Gwinn et al. 2013, Kraus et al. 2013, Mueller & Orvalho 2013, Kraus et al. 2016, Vezzosi et al. 2016, but there are no reports on wearable wireless sensors other than pilot information about the ECG monitor investigated in this study (Brložnik & Avbelj 2015, 2017, Krvavica et al. 2016. ...
... Instantaneous and average heart rates and standard duration measurements determined with the two devices were in agreement in all cases. This had previously been reported for this device (Brložnik & Avbelj 2015, 2017, Krvavica et al. 2016 and is in accordance with reports for other wearable wireless ECG monitors used in human medicine, such as ZioPatch® (Barret et al. 2014, Higgins 2013, Lobodzinski 2013, Rosenberg et al. 2013, Schreiber et al. 2014, Fung et al. 2015, SEEQ™ (formerly Nuvant™) (Walsh et al. 2014, Fung et al. 2015, ZigBee® (Kheertana & Manjunath 2015, Aguirre et al. 2016, PiiX® (Schrivastav et al. 2014) and others (Miao et al. 2015, Uddin et al. 2016. Two of the wearable wireless ECG monitors (ZioPatch® and SEEQ™) are FDA approved (Fung et al. 2015). ...
... Animals tolerated it very well; it did not disturb them and their motion was not hindered. In veterinary medicine there are no reports on wearable sensors except for our pilot descriptions of this device (Brložnik & Avbelj 2015, 2017, Krvavica et al. 2016, although the diagnostic utility of handheld wireless ECG monitors has already been evaluated in ...
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... The study proved that wireless ECG monitoring can give satisfactory ECG recordings, regardless of the sensor position, or physical activity, and size of the dog. Next, a case report of a long-term ECG monitoring on a dog with dilated cardiomyopathy was presented in [30]. The ECG sensor was used to record more than 500 h of ECG data over a period of six months. ...
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