Cardiology · General Practice ·
Smartwatch AI detects hypertension with 65.8% sensitivity in prospective study
A prospective, multicenter study of 196 adults evaluated an AI system using smartwatch photoplethysmography and accelerometry against 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Over seven days, the system showed 65.8% sensitivity and 90.0% specificity for hypertension; the authors propose it as a prompt for confirmatory assessment, not a replacement for cuff-based diagnosis.
- Prospective multicenter study included 196 participants.
- Smartwatch AI sensitivity was 65.8%; specificity was 90.0%.
- Reference standard was 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.
- Authors propose prompting confirmatory assessment, not replacing cuff-based diagnosis.
Hypertension is often undiagnosed, and early detection can support timely intervention. In a prospective, multicenter study, researchers assessed AI-PPG-ACC-HTN, which analyzes photoplethysmography and accelerometry from a consumer smartwatch without cuff calibration. The 196 participants had no known cardiovascular disease and were not taking antihypertensive medication. The reference standard was 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, with smartwatch data collected over seven days.
The smartwatch system detected hypertension with 65.8% sensitivity (95% CI, 54.0%–76.3%), 90.0% specificity (95% CI, 83.2%–94.7%) and a positive predictive value of 80.6% (95% CI, 68.6%–89.6%). Initial office blood pressure screening had 55.3% sensitivity, 90.0% specificity and a 77.8% positive predictive value in this study.
The findings suggest consumer wearables may help identify people who could benefit from clinical assessment. The authors frame the system as an opportunistic screening prompt, with diagnosis to be confirmed using established cuff-based methods. The study was limited to 196 participants without known cardiovascular disease or antihypertensive treatment; the abstract does not provide evidence on performance in broader populations or clinical outcomes.
In practice
For adults resembling the study participants—without known cardiovascular disease or antihypertensive medication—this smartwatch-based AI system detected hypertension with 65.8% sensitivity and 90.0% specificity over seven days, using 24-hour ambulatory monitoring as the reference. The results support further consideration of wearables as a way to prompt clinical assessment, but do not establish a diagnosis or justify replacing cuff-based measurement. Evidence is from a 196-person study, and applicability to other populations and effects on clinical outcomes are not reported in the supplied text.
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Nature: Opportunistically Detecting Signs of Hypertension on a Consumer Smartwatch ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.