Peter Gamma (Physiologist & Director) Meditation Research Institute Switzerland (MRIS)

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Accuracy of commercially available heart rate monitors in athletes: a prospective study

Posted bypg@petergamma.org 3 Comments on Accuracy of commercially available heart rate monitors in athletes: a prospective study

Last Updated on July 8, 2022 by pg@petergamma.org

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6732081/

«Once all devices were on, they were asked to run at the following speeds on a treadmill (in mph): 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 for two min. ( 4 – 9 km / h ).»

Reference device: Cardiac Sience ECG device

Result:

«The Polar H7 chest strap had the greatest agreement with the ECG (rc=98). This was followed by the Apple Watch III (rc=96)»

This study was performed on a threadmill with speeds of 4 – 9 km / h and used a Cardiac Sience ECG device.

The study was performed by the group of the experienced Cardiologist Milind Desai, MD, MBA, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff/6670-milind-desai

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The group compared the accuracy of a Cardiac Science ECG device to different consumer grade heart rate monitors. They concluded that the Polar H7 chest strap had the greatest agreement with the ECG (rc=98), followed by the Apple Watch III (rc=96).

A similar study was performed with a Polar H10 chest strap and a AR12plus Holter monitor ECG device by a Swiss group:

RR interval signal quality of a heart rate monitor and an ECG Holter at rest and during exercise

The study of the Swiss Federal Institute of Sport Magglingen used a completely different protocol than the group of Dr. Milind Desai. Milind Desai did experiments only on a threadmill with slow speed 4 – 9 km / h, we suggest to avoid ECG motion artifacts. The study of the Swiss Federal Institute of Sport Magglingen used a different protocol with differenct kinds of activites. The Swiss group did not use a motion artifact free ECG reference device.

ECG devices are widely used in for a wide range of applications, ECG devices are the most accurate heart rate monitor devices which are on the market.

and Suprisingly, the AR12plus Holter monitor ECG device in the study of the Swiss Federal Institute of Sport Magglingen was very inaccurate, compared to a H10 chest strap. The Swiss authors found out that the inaccuracy of the AR12plus Holter monitor ECG is 94.6 % whereas the inaccuracy of the Polar H10 is 99.63 %.

Since ECG devices are known to be the most accurate heart rate monitoring devices on the market, we suppose that the large inaccuracy of the AR12plus Holter monitor ECG device the Swiss group measured was due to ECG motion artifacts. The Swiss group did not use a motion artifact free ECG device.

The group of Milind Desai did not use a motion artifact free ECG device either, and they did not seem to have any problems with inaccuracy of the Cardiac Science ECG. On the contrary, they used the Cardiac Science ECG device as the most accurate ECG refernce device. We suppose that the group of Milind Desai used a protocol with only slow threadmill speeds Milind Desai (4 – 9 km / h)to avoid to have to use a motion artifact ECG device.

The Swiss group did not care about ECG motion artifacts. This could explain the suprisingly strong inaccuracy of the Holder ECG in the study as compared to the Polar H10.