Laptop camera can do ECG’s work

New York: With a regular laptop camera and sophisticated software, researchers may be able to detect atrial fibrillation about as accurately as with a standard electrocardiogram, according to a new pilot study.The technology records and analyses video footage of a person’s face and detects subtle shifts in skin color that indicate changes in blood flow.

“Existing ECG-based technologies are used only for patients who had symptoms,” said the Jean-Phillipe Couderc of the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York, who led the study.

But there are “approximately 3.2 million people with AF in the US, and an estimated 30 million people in the world,” he said. There’s no way to diagnose the condition without consulting a doctor.In atrial fibrillation, the upper and lower chambers of the heart beat out of sync with each other. Although that can cause symptoms like palpitations or dizziness, often the condition has no signs.

An estimated 30 per cent of people with AF do not know they have it, according to past research.The long-term implications are serious, as AF is progressive and can lead to stroke or heart failure.Mr Couderc said the video-based system, developed with colleagues at Xerox Research Centre in Webster, New York, is the first diagnostic tool to measure the electrical activity of the heart without contact with skin.

For the pilot study, Couderc and his team enrolled 11 patients with diagnosed atrial fibrillation who were scheduled to undergo ECG at the university’s hospital.The scan correctly identified the presenc