Mobile ECG Systems and Cardiovascular Risk: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Problem: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the number one cause of death globally. According to WHO (World Health Organization), 80% of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. CVDs are associated to risk factors such as obesity, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, and others. The scientific community keeps searching for new parameters, like ECG signal analysis, to improve cardiovascular risk evaluation.

Objective: This article aims at providing a systematic review of developed mobile Electrocardiogram (ECG) systems and the relevance of ECG for the assessment of cardiovascular risk.

Methods: A systematic review of two databases (PubMed and IEEEXplore) was carried out.

Results: This article provides an analysis of 10 studies describing mobile ECG systems developed in the last 10 years, and 6 studies analyzing the effectiveness of ECG as a parameter to assess cardiovascular risk.

Conclusions: The systematic review demonstrated that there are no mobile ECG systems used for cardiovascular risk assessment. Furthermore, the review indicates that there is scientific evidence about the effectiveness of ECG as a parameter for cardiovascular risk evaluation, but only in some specific cases.