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Deadly heart attacks are more common on a Monday

(www.bhf.org.uk)
239 points giuliomagnifico | 2 comments | 06 Jun 23 13:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.481s | source
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lukko ◴[06 Jun 23 15:36 UTC] No.36214465[source]▶
I definitely felt Mondays on-call were much busier in the hospital. I always thought this could be due to patients spending weekends with family, not wanting to cause a fuss and maybe ignoring symptoms of cardiac chest pain until it evolves into a serious heart attack (STEMI). Also, they may be waiting to see their GP on Monday morning and then get referred to hospital (although less likely with STEMIs).

I also remember the time between Christmas and New Year being very busy - I thought for a similar reason - people understandably just don't want to be in hospital for Christmas.

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CoastalCoder ◴[06 Jun 23 15:43 UTC] No.36214579[source]▶
I wonder if modern smartphones lay the groundwork for people knowing they're on the cusp of a heart attack.

E.g., using sensors that are cheap, and are less invasive than EKG electrodes. Kinda like the way Apple watches can now continuously monitor stuff

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dividedbyzero ◴[06 Jun 23 15:50 UTC] No.36214689[source]▶
Does an Apple Watch actually tell you if you are?
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Aeolun ◴[06 Jun 23 16:06 UTC] No.36214885[source]▶
It monitors for atrial fibrilation using a single leak EKG I think.

It is very clear about the fact it cannot detect a heart attack though.

Then there’s these slightly more sophisticated things: https://store.kardia.com/products/kardiamobile6l

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1. rootusrootus ◴[06 Jun 23 18:10 UTC] No.36216836[source]▶
I don't believe it uses the EKG functionality to detect afib. I think it's just using some sort of machine learning on the data coming from the photoplethysmograph sensor (now that's a word I had to look up to remember the correct spelling for). Basically the sensor that takes your pulse.

The EKG, as far as I know, doesn't really tell you much other than whether it thinks you have a normal sinus rhythm, or something it doesn't recognize. Too fast, too slow, or whatever. It's also on demand, not continuous. You have to touch a finger from your opposite hand to the crown, while the EKG app is running.

Also, that Kardia advertising is borderline scam. It's a 1 lead EKG just like the Apple Watch. Six lead my ass, they make that claim because you can contort your body in enough ways to take readings from each standard EKG location. You can sorta do the same thing with an apple watch, though it's not physically as large so it wouldn't be as easy. What rubs me the wrong way about calling the Kardia a 6-lead EKG is that it cannot do 6-leads simultaneously, and I think that is a critical detail.

I had a Kardia myself before the first Apple Watch with EKG came out.

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2. Aeolun ◴[07 Jun 23 23:27 UTC] No.36235103[source]▶
Kardia has both the single lead body contortion thing and their 6-lead version, which has 3 metal plates and does a lot more at the same time.

It’s not like you should expect it to be a full EKG :P