Background: This is the first case report demonstrating the use of a smartphone device, enabling the diagnosis of an arrhythmia in the sports cardiology literature.
Case summary: A 17-year-old semi-professional rugby player presented with recurrent episodes of palpitations terminated by vagal manoeuvres. The rugby player's resting 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG), echocardiogram, and exercise stress test were normal. Due to his suggestive history and an ECG trace from a smartphone device, demonstrating a narrow complex tachycardia, an electrophysiological study was arranged. The study demonstrated a slow-fast atrioventricular nodal re-entrant tachycardia which was successfully ablated.
Discussion: The ambulatory use of a smartphone ECG device assisted in the timely diagnosis and management of an undiagnosed paroxysmal arrhythmia in a rugby player. This resulted in an expedited return to play.
Keywords: Arrhythmia; Case report; Digital; Electrophysiology; Sports cardiology.
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.