On Sun, Nov 25, 2018, Monitra's upBeat® went on its first run during the Hyderabad 10K run. We are thankful to a 51 year gentleman who graciously volunteered to wear our upBeat® continuous 24x7 monitoring biosensor to understand its first performance in a 10K run. upBeat® was put on the gentleman at about 4.30 am and removed around 10 am. Since it is uncomfortable to carry the phone during the run, the phone which syncs the bio-physiological data in real-time was kept in the gentleman's car. upBeat® stored all the data in memory and synced immediately when it came in the phone's range.
About Hyderabad 10K Run
The Hyderabad 10K Run Foundation was established in the year 2003, under the leadership of many social elites of Hyderabad, with the following objectives: Bring the city together irrespective of the socio-economic status of the populace. Promote health, fitness and sports among the people & drive home the idea that ..“Every Step Counts”
This year the run was held on Sun, Nov 25, 2018 on the Necklace Road, Hyderabad. The route map is given below.
Monitra's upBeat® Biosensors
upBeat® is a wearable medical grade biosensing skin patch that continuously 24x7 captures electrocardiogram (ECG) and tracks posture as well as activities in real-time. This physiological data is transmitted continuously to the phone and the information is relayed to our cloud platform, upBeat®.AI.
Activity levels sensing
The 3-axis accelerometer in upBeat® is used to understand the activity levels of the user. The figure below illustrates the activity levels across time. It is clearly seen that the activity levels rise sharply when the run starts at 6.28 am and fall sharply when the run ends at 7.31 am.
Baseline ECG at 4.36 am
The heart rate is about 70 bpm.
25 minutes before the run starts
The heart rate is about 105 bpm.
5 minutes before the run starts
The heart rate falls to about 80 bpm.
The run starts
The heart rate is about 100 bpm. You will notice baseline wander midway in the plot below when the run starts.
1 minute after the run starts
The heart rate speeds upto 150 bpm one minute into the race. Baseline wander increased.
5 minutes after the run starts
The heart rate increases to about 160 bpm. Baseline wander increases.
10 minutes after the run starts
The heart rate races further to about 170 bpm. Baseline wander increases.
20 minutes after the run starts
The heart rate remains at about 170 bpm.
30 minutes after the run starts
The heart rate increases to about 180 bpm. Baseline deterioration seen.
40 minutes after the run starts
The heart rate remains at about 180 bpm. Baseline deterioration seen.
50 minutes after the run starts
The heart rate remains at about 180 bpm. Baseline deteriorates further.
60 minutes after the run starts
The heart rate remains at about 180 bpm. Baseline deterioration remains.
The run ends after 1 hour 3 minutes.
The heart rate remains at about 180 bpm. Baseline recovers immediately after the run ends.
1 minute after the run ends
The heart rate falls to about 160 bpm.
3 minutes after the run ends
The heart rate falls to about 140 bpm.
5 minutes after the run ends
The heart rate remains at about 140 bpm.
10 minutes after the run ends
The heart rate falls to about 130 bpm.
30 minutes after the run ends
The heart rate falls to about 110 bpm.
The heart rate plot
Changes in heart rate with time are captured in the figure below. The heart rate rises to about 120+bpm during warm up around 6.10 am. Thereafter, it can be clearly seen that the heart rate races to 170 bpm from 75 bpm immediately once the run starts at 6.28 am. The heart rate falls from 180 bpm to 130 bpm once run ends at 07.31 am. However, the quantum and the rate of fall when the run ends is much lesser than the quantum and rate of increase when the race starts.
Some thoughts
The use of such continuous real-time biosensors could be helpful in cardiocascular training in performance sports. The impact of warm up and cool down routines during training and reduction of injuries can be understood as well.
Sudden cardiac arrest can strike at any time and although sudden cardiac death (SCD) while running is rare, instances of SCD in the running community – especially in long-distance races such as marathons – are becoming more common. In last year’s London Marathon, David Seath tragically lost his life after a suspected cardiac arrest. Such biosensors could possibly be able to alert cardiac events so that appropriate action can be taken in time thereby helping save lives.
References
Spethmann S, Prescher S, Dreger H, Nettlau H, Baumann G, Knebel F, Koehler F. Electrocardiographic monitoring during marathon running: a proof of feasibility for a new telemedical approach. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2014 Nov;21(2 Suppl):32-7.
Minns, Alicia B. et al. Electrocardiogram (ECG) Changes and Cardiac Biomarker Abnormalities Among Two Marathon Runners.Journal of Emergency Medicine , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , 159 - 161