Fitbit Charge HR Does Not Detect SVT

[Lost_Soul]

I have superventricular tachycardia (SVT) where at times my heart rate soars to over 200 beats per minute. This happened for the first time today while I was wearing my Fitbit, but my pulse was said to be only about 118 on the Fitbit when it showed any pulse at all. For most of the event, the Fitbit showed two hyphens (--). I checked my heart rate with a finger oxygen monitor and got a result of around 220, which I know is more correct.
I was hoping the Fitbit would catch my SVTs so I could show my doctor.
Anyone have similar problems?
Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Lost Soul

[SilviaFitbit]

@Lost_Soul Welcome to the Community! Thanks for the details that you've mentioned. I would like you to check Heart Rate FAQs to see what tips you can apply to your tracker so you can get an accurate reading. Also, I found this post  from someone who was experiencing the same thing. 

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes. 

[Naomi63]

I had an SVT event today while wearing my Fitbit. It was caught on monitor in the emergency department at 240. The wristband showed'--' but then 50 and low numbers. I was wondering about that and could it have been showing 50 when my heart was 250 i.e. that there is some relation between the number o n the wrist band and my actual SVT heart rate?

[livethelife]

Hi there - I have NOT been diagnosed with SVT's but I'm wondering if that is what is going on with me.  I have a Fitbit Charge 2 that I just got about 4 months ago. 

I have had heart palpitations / anxiety / panic etc for many years and have seen cardiologists numerous times.  They have never been able to "catch" one of my episodes even though I have worn 24 hr monitors etc. They have seen the palpitations on the monitor and told me not to worry about them.

I thought that getting the Fitbit with the HR function would be good for me but it is making my anxiety worse.  I have set mine up now so that I can't see my HR on the band - I have to open the app on my phone in order to see it.....this has helped my anxiety to not have the HR info so readily available to me.  Still I want to know what is going on and get it checked out further if something doesn't seem right.  I am seeing my doctor next week.

So what is happening on my Fitbit that has me concerned?  well a few times in the past few months when I have felt like something "wasn't right" with my heart I have checked my HR on the Fitbit and I see "--" in other words the Fitbit cannot get an accurate reading.  I have also had a few other times when I feel totally fine and I check the app and it says HR is "--".

Due to my anxiety I have some fear of exercise because elevating my heart rate feels similar to anxiety / panic.  However I have been trying to do more exercise and have been monitoring what is going on with my HR during exercise. What I often see is gaps in my heart rate graph at certain times during exercise - this is not observable on the regular HR tracing as from what I understand those are 5 minutes averages but I can definitely see these gaps when I go back and enter / add an exercise session during the time I was exercising.  Here is an example from yesterday when I was at the gym 

you can see on the photo from the app the gaps are clearly visible - in the picture from my computer the gaps have been made into smooth lines.  I would be interested to hear others comments on this.  I don't think this is something new going on with my heart as I've felt for many many years that something wasn't quite right but I've always been told it is anxiety.  I am going to take these screen shots (and others) to my doctor next week but I would be interested in others comments.

Also, to be clear I am not looking for a diagnosis I will leave that to the doctors but just wondering if people with SVT, Atrial Fib or other arrythmias have observed this type of thing as well.  If I do have something going on that isn't right I will be thankful for this Fitbit for finally helping me get to the bottom of it.

[Gonzodog1]

Hello,

I just got a Charge 2  one week ago.  My purchase was prompted by the sleep tracking and my SVT.  I sometimes feel pretty crummy when I wake and wanted to know if I was having episodes at night.

I am not able to see my actual HR during sleep- just the stages of sleep.  So, I would like to know how to see that if anyone knows.

As far as SVT, what I have experienced is that if I push too hard in my workouts ( >90% max) I tend to see the spikes where HR goes 180- 210 - not good. I know how to manage w/o meds.  This used to happen weekly or more.  I just in the past 2 months went from HIT cycling to endurance and focused on keeping HR in fat burn etc.  I have to say I have not had an SVT gig in 3 weeks?  I do not know if that helps anyone, but I was glad to reduce my worry about the spikes. It seems to limit my workouts, but I am still able to do something. My Dr. did confirm no heart disease, athletic heart, very healthy.  I was a pretty active person I just want to stay healthy and enjoy life....No idea what causes SVT, just electrical misfiring I am told.

So, can I retrieve my actual HR graph from my sleep profile?

Sweet dreams all...

[Naomi63]

Hi there, I used a charge 2 for a while and could see the 24hr heart rate tracking under the ❤️ tile as far as I remember. 

FYI I had an ablation for my SVT last October and instantly felt much better. Like you, I felt crummy in the mornings. I thought it was old age! I never realised SVT could interfere with my sleep. The cardiologist couldn't confirm this but I'm living it so that's proof enough for me 🙂

[Gonzodog1]

Well, it is good to know there can be a fix. My cardiologist never suggested ablation to me, but if I cannot control it I will ask.


And I did find the 24hr HR info on the charge II. That is good to see presuming that a SVT episode could be captured. But I have been wearing the Charge II and Polar under "stress" and not had any episodes. It will be good to see how it goes.


Thanks for the tips!

Carolyn

[RustyHeart]

Hi Lost_Soul, did you get any useful info re your question? Hubby has Bradycardia (resting pulse approx 40) and wears his fitbit so that we can see when he is in fibrillation (goes above 70 or so) but during his annual 24hr monitoring this year the hospital monitor showed 240bpm while the fit bit was showing 139bpm during a gym workout. I'm guessing that at those speeds maybe there's just not enough blood in each beat to register at the wrist!  It would be nice to be able to know when he's having these episodes as he doesn't really get any symptoms. 

[Gonzodog1]

Hello,

Someone posted a reply that said I could try checking the heart rate icon on the dashboard to see the 24 hour heart activity. That is correct, it shows the whole day.

But when I work out I wear a Polar watch with a chest strap (and it is waterproof). My Polar will show my peak HR at 159 and has shown as high as 210. Recently in a hard work out my HR was high. When I checked the Fitbit it did not show that same max - it may have averaged it?

I think you could be right about the wrist placement etc. That was always my thought, but I liked the sleep feature and the Polar is a huge watch (got a man's since I only wear to the gym).

So, I think the Fitbit it great, but does not cover some of the heart beats. I thought I had not had an episode since I bought it, but now I think it just misses it. Guess I will be wearing 2 to the gym and I can always check my carotid!

Hope your husband gets better. Being aware is half the battle then to figure out if anything sets it up.
Good luck!
Carolyn

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[RustyHeart]

Thanks. You're right...the fit bit dashboard does average over each min but you can dig deeper. The easiest way to do this is using something written by a squash player...https://www.squashleagues.org/Fitbit/FitbitDataDownload

That way you can get each actual reading ...usually every few seconds. 

Even looking at that it didn't pick up such high rates though. 

Never mind...he's off for ablation soon so hopefully things will improve and in the meantime he's wearing my Polar strap for the gym 🙂

As you say, being aware is so important.

Good luck to you too

[Cantijustbekay]

I had some kind of even a few nights ago and had similar results. I woke up around 2:30am to intense chest pain and my Fitbit either didn’t register or said - - at one point it said 107 but when I look at my daily heart rate log it just has a gap in recording which is super frustrating. I went to the ER they said it wasn’t likely a heart attack after running tests and probably an esophageal spasm. The Fitbit log remains a mystery. 

[Cantijustbekay]

I had some kind of even a few nights ago and had similar results. I woke up around 2:30am to intense chest pain and my Fitbit either didn’t register or said - - at one point it said 107 but when I look at my daily heart rate log it just has a gap in recording which is super frustrating. I went to the ER they said it wasn’t likely a heart attack after running tests and probably an esophageal spasm. The Fitbit log remains a mystery. 

[LightningLoris]

Hi! I don't have any fitbit insight for you BUT I can say that I went through the same thing for ages and ultimately what helped was having 1) Exercise treadmill test w/ECG  2) an implanted cardiac monitor  (the ICM was Medtronic Reveal).  I hope such things might help you too. Good luck!

[SunsetRunner]

Hi, I'm a new to this community/forum. I'm trying to find out which Fitbit is best to purchase for tracking or recognizing Ventricular Tachycardia. I read your comment SilviaFitbit, I tried to click on the "this post" and the "Heart Rate FAQs" but, it tells me that access is denied. I'm afraid IDK what I need to do to read the posts mentioned. 

Thank you for your help!

nows-the-time101

[ABKateeb]

I got a Fitbit Charge 5 for the sole purpose of catching my SVT and showing it to my doctor. Unfortunately it happened twice this week, where I could easily tell my heart rate is over 200 but it showed 160 on the watch. I was playing soccer so 160 was the average during that hour. I'll start a warranty claim to return it, it's the only reason why I bought it in the first place. So disappointed that it didn't show on the watch. Now who knows when it'll happen again, it's completely random.