According to the World Health Organisation, cardiovascular diseases claim almost 20 million lives every year and remain the leading cause of death worldwide. Although they are most often associated with heart attacks or strokes, serious complications do not always begin suddenly – sometimes their onset is far less noticeable.

For doctors, this raises a difficult question: how can they record something that is not happening during an examination? A standard electrocardiogram (ECG) shows the heart’s activity only at a specific moment, while even longer-term monitoring does not always coincide with less frequent episodes of heart rhythm disorders. As a result, some arrhythmias, particularly short episodes of atrial fibrillation, may go unnoticed until they cause more serious health problems.

Hookah is often seen as a cleaner alternative to smoking cigarettes, but researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington are launching a new study to put that assumption to the test.