HeartBeam Publishes Foundational Study on Heart Attack Detection

HeartBeam has published a foundational study showing the ability of its credit card-size, 3D-vector electrocardiogram (VECG) platform to spot the presence of coronary artery blockages.
 
The publication appeared in JACC: Advances and demonstrated that VECG tech detects the presence of a coronary occlusion and cause of heart attacks with the same accuracy as a standard, 12-lead electrocardiogram (12L ECG). The company said this shows the potential to offer an easy-to-use system to record a diagnostic quality ECG signal outside a medical institution, which could boost heart attack detection and speed of access to care.
 
The 12L ECG and VECG signals were recorded in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. Readings were taken after a 90-second balloon inflation that occluded the artery, a surrogate for a heart attack. Automated computer analysis of the ST segment of the 12L ECG and VECG was performed, and a panel of three cardiologists analyzed the 12L ECGs.
 
The study showed automated analysis of the VECG and 12L ECG signals had similar performance in determining whether the artery was occluded. Human interpretation of the 12L ECGs had significant intra- and inter-observer variability, which doesn’t occur with automated readings.
 
Both the 12L ECGs and the VECG readings were analyzed in two ways: a “spot” reading, when only a single recording was considered, and a “comparative” reading when a separate “normal baseline” recording was available for comparison. The presence of the “normal baseline” recording, a novel feature integral to HeartBeam’s VECG technology, dramatically improved the accuracy of interpretation, increasing the Area Under the Curve (AUC), a standard measure of diagnostic performance, from 0.72 to 0.95, according to HeartBeam.
 
“This is the first peer-reviewed publication based on our novel VECG technology,” Branislav Vajdic, Ph.D., CEO and founder of HeartBeam, told the press. “It demonstrates the potential for an easy-to-use, patient-held device to be employed in the detection of heart attacks at home. By combining the novel VECG approach with a system that incorporates a patient’s baseline signal, our technology was shown to have accuracy in detecting coronary occlusions similar or better to that of cardiologists evaluating a 12L ECG.”