At least with my experience with afib, while using a Bryton HR strap and various Garmins (500/920XT/530), they seem to work. I actually first noticed my afib with occasional spikes showing up on Strava, which progressively got worse and worse. The sudden jumps in HR corresponded with a feeling like I got the wind knocked out of me. That feeling would go away at the same time my HR dropped back to where it had been before.

But even when my HR would stay up in the 180-220bpm range, it never affected my max HR or zone settings. Post ablation, I still occasionally get a quick spike, and those show up on my Garmins and on Strava:

---

"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

Thanks that's helpful. I was in afib for a while also And the strap measured it well. The Apple watch also caught it.

Not a Dr. So...

But, both techs rely on recognizing characteristic waveforms and counting the rate of repetitive patterns. Both can be fooled by differences in the expected patterns...eg arythmias, electrical abnormalities such as heart blocks, pvcs, etc.

I can't comment on your condition.

My dad has a heart block. He wears his strap upside down and rotated about 90 degrees around his torso to get it to pick up a signal.

If you have the coin, you may want to invest in Fourth Frontier X2 real time and continuous ECG. Pretty impressive unit in my experience and nothing else out there like it to my knowledge. https://fourthfrontier.com

---

https://athletica.ai/
https://hiitscience.com/

Looks interesting. Have you used one? I tried a thing called Kardia but returned it, the process of stopping and taking a reading was too cumbersome.

I thought Garmin was going to have an ecg function? The Apple watch seems to do well, but it has shortcomings as an exercise watch.

Pretty harsh reviews here

https://reddit.com/...Fitness/s/khUfPFldrj

I work in cardiology/echo/stress testing. I personally had arrhythmias (SVT) where my heart rate would jump up 50-80 beats very rapidly. My garmin HRM strap always picked it up accurately. In my experience with EKG's during stress testing, the PVC's and couplets that you are talking about are still counted towards your heart rate.

Yes - Like mine. Saw your reddit review comment and I think those are probably more from older versions and that the product has come a long way. Have been in the game a while, used most of the monitors on the market, but haven't seen one do all this. Full ECG trace captured or live stream that you could show your doc or heart guru. If I had a heart issue or arrhythmia this would be my pick. Think they give an option to trial and return but not sure.

---

https://athletica.ai/
https://hiitscience.com/

I wear a garmin Fenix 6. I went in for a pre op physical for my shoulder. They ran an EKG because I am over 65. My resting hr from my garmin was showing mid to low 30s, while the ekg showed the upper chambers on my heart fluttering at 300 beats per minute.

Fast forward 6 months, I had an ablation to correct the flutter. I was put on a 24/7 holter monitor for 30 days as follow up to the ablation. The clinic called me to tell me I was in a fib for the past five days…my Fenix 6 showed my heart rate at low 40s.

I don’t think it is a good indicator of more serious issues and I haven’t been able to find a good solution other than medical grade ekgs.

That's interesting and scary also. Glad you got it dealt with. I was in AFib for about 4 months before I was finally able to get shocked back into normal sinus rhythm. They wanted me to be on blood thinners for a while. In my case, my heart monitor indicated pretty high heart rates, like something I would have seen during the Reagan years 180s. I certainly felt it, even doing easy exercise like walking the dog I was pulling pretty high heart rates.

When I do a VO2 test or a stress test at the hospital and read the report after it indicates that my heart is beating kind of abnormally under load although I don't really feel anything funny. I do feel that the output kind of plateaus at a point and despite the numbers going up on the heart rate monitor It doesn't really seem to be pumping more blood so it's pointless to attempt to close the gap on the climb, you're just going to have to wait for me at the top.

I guess dealing with aging and these kind of health issues forces you to set your pride aside a little bit. That's been a rocky road for me

Similar to ToBrian.... I had several bouts of a-flutter and a-fib after my bypass surgery. While I was dealing with that, my HRM (both optical and garmin chest strap) was mostly a random number generator that could only be relied on to say "sitting still" or "probably working out". I've found Garmin chest straps to be particularly bad at reading unusual ECG waveforms. I've had better luck with Polar, and TICKR.

If they have u go on blood thinners…typically Eliquis…..and you don’t have good med coverage in the USA, buy in Canada. Funny story kind of…when the cardiologist called me to tell me I was in AFib, she told me she wanted me back on blood thinners. I happened to be camping in Canmore at the time. I called a local pharmacy to find out drug prices and they told me a one month supply was $20 versus $650 in the USA. I called my cardiologist back and told her to write a 3 month prescription:-)

My insurance covers xaralto with a copay. I read somewhere that the half-life of those blood thinners is not super long and you are at risk of stroke when sleeping so I take it as my evening dose so if I get in a bike crash or something during the day maybe there is less of a chance of problems. It's still on my mind though, I'm a lot more careful about not hitting my head