Here’s a brief overview of our latest study, in press with JSCR.  We compared the ithlete finger sensor with ECG in supine, seated and standing positions. We are continuing our testing with other popular smartphone HRV apps in the near future. Thanks to the Summer 2015 Alabama S&C interns for making up a large portion of the participants in this study.

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Agreement between a smart-phone pulse sensor application and ECG for determining lnRMSSD

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine the agreement between a smartphone pulse finger sensor (SPFS) and electrocardiography (ECG) for determining ultra-short-term heart rate variability (HRV) in three different positions. Thirty college-aged men (n = 15) and women (n = 15) volunteered to participate in this study. Sixty second heart rate measures were simultaneously taken with the SPFS and ECG in supine, seated and standing positions. lnRMSSD was calculated from the SPFS and ECG. The lnRMSSD values were 81.5 ± 11.7 via ECG and 81.6 ± 11.3 via SPFS (p = 0.63, Cohen’s d = 0.01) in the supine position, 76.5 ± 8.2 via ECG and 77.5 ± 8.2 via SPFS (p = 0.007, Cohen’s d = 0.11) in the seated position, and 66.5 ± 9.2 via ECG and 67.8 ± 9.1 via SPFS (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.15) in the standing positions. The SPFS showed a possibly strong correlation to the ECG in all three positions (r values from 0.98 to 0.99). In addition, the limits of agreement (CE ± 1.98 SD) were -0.13 ± 2.83 for the supine values, -0.94± 3.47 for the seated values, and -1.37 ± 3.56 for the standing values. The results of the study suggest good agreement between the SPFS and ECG for measuring lnRMSSD in supine, seated, and standing positions. Though significant differences were noted between the two methods in the seated and standing positions, the effect sizes were trivial.

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