Wrist-worn devices with heart rate monitoring have become increasingly popular. Although current guidelines advise to consider clinical symptoms and exercise tolerance during decision-making in heart disease, it remains unknown to which extent wearables can help to determine such functional capacity measures. In clinical settings, the 6-minute walk test has become a standardized diagnostic and prognostic marker. We aimed to explore, whether 6-minute walk distances can be predicted by wrist-worn devices in patients with different stages of mitral and aortic valve disease. A total of n = 107 sensor datasets with 1,019,748 min of recordings were analysed. Based on heart rate recordings and literature information, activity levels were determined and compared to results from a 6-minute walk test. The percentage of time spent in moderate activity was a predictor for the achievement of gender, age and body mass index-specific 6-minute walk distances (p < 0.001; R 2 = 0.48). The uncertainty of these predictions is demonstrated.

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Background: Due to the aging of the population, the prevalence of aortic valve stenosis will increase dramatically in upcoming years. Consequently Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) procedures will also expand worldwide. Optimal selection of patients who benefit with improved symptoms and prognosis is key since TAVI is not without risk. Currently we are not able to adequately predict functional outcome after TAVI. Quality of life measurement tools and traditional functional assessment tests do not always agree and can depend on factors unrelated to heart disease. Activity tracking using wearable devices might provide a more comprehensive assessment. Objectives: Identify objective parameters from a wearable device (the Philips Health Watch) associated with improvement after TAVI for severe aortic stenosis. Methods and results: 100 patients undergoing routine TAVI wore a Philips Health Watch for one week before and after the procedure. Watch data were analyzed offline: 97 before and 75 after TAVI. Parameters like the total number of steps and activity time did not change, in contrast to improvements in the six-minute walking test (6MWT) and physical limitation domain of a questionnaire (transformed WHOQOL-BREF). Conclusions: These findings in an elderly TAVI population show that watch-based parameters like the number of steps do not change after TAVI, unlike traditional 6MWT and QoL assessments that do improve. Basic wearable device parameters might be less appropriate for measurement of treatment effects from TAVI.