How to Use Cardiogram to Monitor Atrial Fibrillation (AFib)

If you’re living with Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), Cardiogram can help you track your heart rate trends, log symptoms, and share data with your doctor. While Cardiogram does not diagnose or alert you to AFib, it’s a powerful companion app to help you monitor your condition more closely.

✅ Step 1: Wear Your Device Consistently

Cardiogram works with several smartwatches that track heart rate throughout the day and night, including:

• Apple Watch
• Fitbit
• Google Pixel Watch
• Wear OS watches
• Garmin watches

Make sure to wear your device throughout the day and while sleeping. This helps capture:

• Irregular rhythms
• Sudden spikes or dips in heart rate
• Episodes you may not feel right away

📈 Step 2: Review Your Heart Rate Trends

In the Timeline tab, you can scroll through your heart rate data across the day. While Cardiogram doesn’t diagnose AFib, here are some patterns you can look for:

• Erratic heart rate changes at rest
• Sudden surges or drops that don’t match activity
• Fluctuations within short time windows

Zoom in to specific hours or moments to examine what your heart was doing when you felt symptoms, or even when you didn’t.

🏷️ Step 3: Tag Your Symptoms

AFib symptoms can be unpredictable, and tracking them helps create a clearer picture.

To tag a symptom:

1. Open your Timeline page in the Cardiogram app.

2. Tap the “...” button at the top left of the day.

   Select “Add Tag.”

   Choose a time window and enter one or more symptoms:

   • Heart fluttering
   • Skipped beats
   • Chest discomfort
   • Shortness of breath
   • Fatigue
   • Anxiety
3. Tap “Save”

These tags show up in your Timeline and help your doctor correlate what you’re feeling with your heart rate patterns.

🕒 Step 4: Use Continuous Mode for a more granular view.

If you’re feeling symptoms or suspect an AFib episode, you can use Continuous Mode on the Cardiogram watch app to get more frequent heart rate readings temporarily.

🩺 Optional: Log Blood Pressure and Other Related Data

If you monitor your blood pressure manually, you can log it in Cardiogram:

1. Tap the PA (Blood Pressure) tab.
2. Tap “+ Add Measurement”
3. Enter your systolic/diastolic values
4. Add a note like “before symptoms” or “after exercise”

You can also use tags to log when you take medications or do certain activities, like walking or resting.

📄 Step 5: Share Your Data with Your Doctor

To help your provider understand your condition better, you can export a report with your heart rate data and symptom tags.

Here’s how:

1. Open the Cardiogram app
2. Tap the Reports tab (📈 icon at the bottom)
3. Scroll down to “Share with doctor”
4. Export your data as a PDF or CSV

This report includes:

• Heart rate trends
• Tags and symptoms
• Blood pressure logs (if entered)

⚠️ About Irregular Heartbeat Alerts

Cardiogram does not send alerts for AFib or irregular heart rhythms.

However, if you use an Apple Watch, Apple’s built-in Heart app may notify you when signs of irregular rhythm suggestive of AFib are detected.

To enable Irregular Rhythm Notifications:

1. Open the Health app on your iPhone
2. Tap Browse > Heart > Irregular Rhythm Notifications
3. Follow the setup steps (Apple requires that you're age 22+ and not already diagnosed with AFib)

Even if you use Apple’s alerts, Cardiogram is still helpful for tagging symptoms and reviewing heart rate trends over time.

Need Help?

If you have questions about how to use Cardiogram or need help setting things up, email us anytime at [email protected] — we’re happy to help!