Monitoring Carotid Blood Flow Using In-Ear Wearable Device During Tilt-Table Testing, 2023, Hemantkumar Tripathi MD et al

As for the limitations of this study, simultaneous transcranial Doppler imaging was not performed, and we assumed that the eCBF and internal carotid flow are highly correlated.

It would be ideal to compare the two techniques. Cerebral blood flow via the internal carotid artery is subject to cerebral autoregulation in order to protect the brain from under- or over- perfusion. The external system is probably negatively correlated, eg external carotid flows increase in order to shunt blood away and protect brain from over-circulation and vice versa.

Gravitational effects on intracranial pressure and blood flow regulation in young men: a potential shunting role for the external carotid artery (2020)
Dynamic cerebral autoregulation is unrelated to decrease in external carotid artery blood flow during acute hypotension in healthy young men (2016)

See also —
Stat Pearls: Physiology, Cerebral Autoregulation

Also this paper looks at diurnal and sex differences in cerebral autoregulation (none found) —
Comparison of diurnal variation, anatomical location, and biological sex within spontaneous and driven dynamic cerebral autoregulation measures (2020)
 
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/13/stat-health-in-ear-wearable-promises-it-can-predict-fainting.html


KEY POINTS

 
It's a promising device, but trying to market it to end users before it has been tested in any way is not encouraging.

First it has to do what it claims it does, and second it has to be proven to be useful at it. I doubt this would be much useful in terms of "insights to help them decide when they can push themselves", so the message is already off to a bad start. This is too close in spirit to the idea of finding the right formula and combination of rituals to perform that will just grow health, or whatever.
 
It's a promising device, but trying to market it to end users before it has been tested in any way is not encouraging.

I agree that it needs to be tested before being sold. But this line from the story makes it sound like at least some testing has been done?

CNBC website said:
The STAT earpiece has also proven to predict fainting minutes before it happens, according to peer-reviewed findings published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology this year.

I don't see a link to any peer reviewed study but maybe it's there and I missed it.

EDIT: A bit more info here:

https://www.accesswire.com/760813/S...r-Long-COVID-POTS-and-Other-Related-Syndromes
accesswire website said:
Clinically tested at Johns Hopkins and peer-reviewed in the March 2023 issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), the device has been shown to predict fainting minutes before it happens.

There's also this link - https://www.stat-health.com/ - which has this in the FAQ section:
stat-health.com said:
Has this technology been tested by doctors?

STAT was tested at Johns Hopkins during tilt table testing, and was able to detect fainting episodes before they happened, which a BP cuff was unable to do.A follow-up tilt table test comparing STAT against Transcranial doppler (TCD) Ultrasound and beat-to-beat Blood Pressure (BP) monitoring is underway at Duke University.

That paragraph includes a link to this study:

https://www.jacc.org/doi/abs/10.1016/j.jacep.2023.02.002

Sorry for the stream of consciousness post. It was like following bread crumbs through the woods to find the study.

I hope it's the right one!
 
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Found this post by Dysautonomia International which mentions the follow-up study being done by Duke:

Text from tweets:
1: "Congratulations to our friends at STAT Health, who launched their new ear device today that can track heart rate, blood flow to the head, body position & more! We are super excited to see tech companies developing tools for the #dysautonomia community!"

2:"They are taking pre-orders starting today at http://stat-health.com. Duke University researchers will be presenting new dysautonomia research using this device during our annual conference in DC next month: http://DysConf.org "
Code:
https://twitter.com/Dysautonomia/status/1668720140869853184
 
That’s so interesting @Mij

I am about to have a tilt table test which I am dreading last one I had was a normal(ish?) result but I felt horrifically sick for a long time following it.

Shame I couldn’t have got one of these to take in with me to check it out. I’d thought due to how I did have symptoms while tilted but got normal results, maybe my OI was neurological rather than Cardiovascular.

ps I don’t fancy the subscription on something pretty much untested just yet. I hope if it works out it will be an affordable intervention for individuals or it works so well healthcare providers will fund it for patients.
 
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has anyone tried to order it? I tried from Norway with VPN, but my cards declined. Tried with a Norwegian, German and UK one. Is it any point in getting this if one actually experiences a change in heart rate when standing?
 
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