To use a picture, the SRA listens to the heart and hears whether there were, are or will be events of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. This is achieved by measuring the heart beat over just one hour. According to the SRA type a target group tailert documentation is provided, which delivers the base for eventually further diagnostic or preventive measures to exclude drastic outcomes.

Purpose

A problem which is heart to detect

It is easy to detect atrial fibrillation when it is present during the ECG recording. The conventional resting ECG is sufficient for that.

To identify patients who suffer from paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) is far more difficult. The problem in PAF is that fibrillation episodes happen in an irregular pattern. Usually it stopped again, when an ECG is taken. It seems like trying to catch a phantom. That is why detection of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation is mostly accidental.

In addition, PAF is without symptoms to a high extent and even if there are symptoms, they are very unspecific. So either the patient senses nothing or is unable to correlate his symptoms.

The SRA senses the past

Here comes the SRA into play, as it is able to detect signs of fibrillation episodes in the past. Which means that fibrillation episodes in the atrium at the time of the recording are not required for the identification of PAF. This is possible with a mathematical interpretation of changes in the heart rate dynamics, which is not always reversed immediately after a fibrillation episode.

Nothing escapes the mathematical algorithm

A further advantage: with the used mathematical tools, it is possible to find the slightest variations in the heart rate dynamics which would escape a detection by eye. Therefore, the probability to identify a patient with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation is more than six times higher than with conventional methods.