(ANSA) – ROME, JUNE 30 – In the future, the shopping cart could help monitor heart health. This is the idea that comes from a British study by Liverpool John Moores University, the preliminary results of which were presented at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The researchers conducted an experiment by equipping 10 shopping trolleys with handles equipped with sensors for an electrocardiogram. Over the course of two months, the trolleys were distributed across four different supermarkets in the Liverpool area, each of which included an in-house pharmacy.
Just over 2,100 buyers took part in the test and all were asked to grip the handlebars of the sensor-equipped trolley for at least one minute. When no heart rhythm problems were identified, the handlebar sensor would glow green, and people also had their pulse screened manually. However, whenever the handlebar detected a heart rhythm problem, the sensor turned red. In that case, an in-store pharmacist conducted both a manual pulse screening and an additional EKG. The readings were then reviewed by a cardiologist.
Overall, a total of 220 shoppers were flagged as being at risk of possible atrial fibrillation, based on the activation of a red light on the cart sensor or irregular pulses during manual scanning. For 59, a heart rhythm disturbance was established and confirmed, and around one-third already knew they had atrial fibrillation, meaning two-thirds were diagnosed for the first time. Another 115 buyers (of the 220) were declared free of fibrillation, while readings for 46 other people proved inconclusive. Therefore, although there were false positives and false negatives in the response given by the sensor on the trolley and the study is classified as preliminary, for scholars the scope and type of experiment could represent an important future development key. (HANDLE).
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