Patent ID: 7353057

Claim:
A portable apparatus for detecting atrial fibrillation by a patient, comprising: a) means for repetitively obtaining a plurality of groups of n successive RR intervals from the patient's heart potentials, n being a natural number greater than 1; b) means for producing a patient scatter plot, each point in the patient scatter plot representing one of said groups of n successive RR intervals; c) means for comparing the patient scatter plot with at least one normal distribution scatter plot of a healthy heart to check the patient scatter plot for the presence of a prescribed geometrical point structure corresponding to one a plurality of predefined states of not very likely to highly likely risk of atrial fibrillation; d) means for generating a state signal having one of a plurality of predetermined fixed values depending on the risk of atrial fibrillation from means c) such that the state signal has a first value if the risk of atrial fibrillation is not very likely, a second value if the risk of atrial fibrillation is between not very likely to a highly likely, and a third value if the risk of atrial fibrillation is highly likely; and e) a plurality of individually activatable visible display elements corresponding in number to the number of possible state signal values, each visible display element respectively being one of the possible state signal values, and means for activating the visible display element corresponding to the value of the state signal generated by means d); wherein the scatter plots are virtual scatter plots, and wherein the patient can independently identify the patient's health status by observing which visible display element is activated.