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Updated: Jan 27, 2026
An Application for Pairing with Wearable Devices to Monitor Personal Health Status
Published on: February 3, 2022
Early Detection of Hypoglycemia in Type 1 Diabetes Using Heart Rate Variability Measured by a Wearable Device
Marleen Olde Bekkink1, Mats Koeneman2, Bastiaan E de Galan3
1Department of Internal Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands marleen.oldebekkink@radboudumc.nl.
Objective:
Changes in heart rate variability (HRV) occur at the initiation of hypoglycemia due to sympathetic nervous system activity. We investigated the use of HRV detection by a wearable device as an early alert for hypoglycemia.
Research Design And Methods:
This proof-of-principle study included 23 patients with type 1 diabetes (14 women, mean age 42 ± 11 years). Patients wore a VitalConnect HealthPatch for 5 days. Hypoglycemia was defined as glucose ≤70 mg/dL (≤3.9 mmol/L) by fingerstick measurement. HRV was analyzed in standardized periods before the hypoglycemic event.
Results:
Sixty-six hypoglycemic events were recorded. Hypoglycemia caused a typical HRV pattern in 36 (55%) of the hypoglycemic events. Eighteen events (27%) showed an atypical pattern. Ten events were unclassified (15%), and two did not display a change in HRV (3%).
Conclusions:
Hypoglycemia causes early changes in HRV that can be detected by a wearable device. Measuring real-time HRV seems promising for early hypoglycemia detection.
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