System and method for displaying cardiac events

• US 20020077859A1
• Filed: 12/15/2000
• Published: 06/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cardiac Pacemakers Incorporated (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Cardiac Pacemakers Incorporated (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Inventors: Lindh, Par, Stahmann, Jeffrey E., Kalgren, James, Wentkowski, Rene H.
• Granted Patent: US 6,941,167 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/339 Displays specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37247 User interfaces, e.g. input or presentation means
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for displaying statistical distributions of cardiac events. According to one aspect, a programmer device is provided that generally comprises circuitry for communicating with a medical device, and a display. The medical device collects data regarding cardiac events occurring at two or more sites, and the display provides a histogram of the data as two or more statistical distributions for the two or more sites. In one embodiment, the data includes both sensed intrinsic cardiac events and paced cardiac events. And in another embodiment, the histogram generally comprises a plurality of histogram bins that provide statistical distributions for the cardiac events. Each of the histogram bins generally includes a portion of a first cardiac event distribution and a portion of a second cardiac event distribution. In one embodiment, the portions of the first cardiac event distribution and the portions of the second cardiac event distribution are adjacent to each other in each histogram bin. In one embodiment, the first and second cardiac event distributions include right ventricular and left ventricular cardiac event distributions. According to other aspects, a method, a system, a histogram, a display, and a software program for providing a cardiac event graph are also provided herein.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

circuitry for communicating with a medical device that is adapted for acquiring data regarding cardiac events occurring at two or more sites; and

a display for providing a histogram of the data as two or more statistical distributions for the two or more sites, wherein the histogram includes both a right ventricular cardiac event distribution and a left ventricular cardiac event distribution.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the data includes both sensed intrinsic cardiac events and paced cardiac events.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the two or more sites include a first site and a second site in a first cardiac chamber.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the two or more sites include a first site and a second site in a first cardiac chamber, and further include a third site in a second cardiac chamber.

5. The device of claim 1, further including a second histogram to provide a statistical distribution for atrial events.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the histogram comprises a plurality of histogram bins for the two or more statistical distributions, each of the histogram bins including:

a portion of the right ventricular cardiac event distribution; and

a portion of the left ventricular cardiac event distribution.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the portion of the right ventricular cardiac event distribution is adjacent to the portion of the left ventricular cardiac event distribution in each of the histogram bins.

8. The device of claim 6, wherein the histogram further comprises a histogram axis extending through each of the histogram bins, and wherein the portion of the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the portion of the left ventricular cardiac event distribution are on opposing sides of the histogram axis in each of the histogram bins.

9. The device of claim 6, wherein the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution are distinguished using different colors.

10. The device of claim 6, wherein the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution each include both a sensed intrinsic cardiac event distribution and a paced cardiac event distribution.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution are formed by summing the sensed intrinsic cardiac event distribution with the paced cardiac event distribution.

12. The device of claim 10, wherein the sensed intrinsic cardiac event distribution and the paced cardiac event distribution are distinguished using different fillings.

13. The device of claim 1, wherein:

the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution are determined by dividing an event count in bin by a denominator;

the denominator is the sum of a total RVS count, a total RVP count, and a total LVP count; and

the LVP count includes only left ventricular pacing events in which no right ventricular pace is delivered for a corresponding cardiac cycle.

14. The device of claim 1, wherein the medical device is a pacemaker.

15. The device of claim 1, wherein the medical device is a defibrillator.

16. The device of claim 1, wherein the histogram includes programmed tachy zone rate thresholds.

17. The device of claim 1, wherein the programmer displays the data using a monitor.

18. The device of claim 1, wherein the programmer displays the data using a printer.

20. The device of claim 19, further comprising a second histogram to provide a statistical distribution for atrial events.

19. A device, comprising:

circuitry for communicating with a medical device that is adapted for acquiring data regarding cardiac events occurring at two or more sites;

a display for providing a histogram of the data as statistical distributions for the two or more sites;

wherein the two or more sites include a first site in a left ventricle and a second site in a right ventricle;

wherein the histogram comprises a plurality of histogram bins for the statistical distributions;

wherein the histogram includes both a right ventricular cardiac event distribution and a left ventricular cardiac event distribution;

wherein the right ventricular cardiac event distribution is adjacent to the left ventricular cardiac event distribution; and

wherein the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution each include both a sensed intrinsic cardiac event distribution and a paced cardiac event distribution.

21. A programmer device, comprising:

circuitry for communicating with a medical device that is adapted for acquiring data regarding cardiac events occurring at two or more sites; and

a display for providing a histogram of the data as two or more statistical distributions for the two or mores sites, wherein the statistical distributions are selected from the set consisting of;

at least one left ventricle statistical distribution and at least one right ventricle statistical distribution;

at least two left ventricle statistical distributions;

at least two right ventricle statistical distributions;

at least one left atrium statistical distribution and at least one right atrium statistical distribution;

at least two left atrium statistical distributions; and

at least two right atrium statistical distributions.

22. The programmer device of claim 21, wherein:

a cardiac event distribution is determined by dividing an event count in bin by a denominator;

the denominator is the sum of a total primary site sense count, a total primary site pace count, and a total secondary site pace count; and

the secondary pace count includes only secondary pacing events in which no primary pace is delivered for a corresponding cardiac cycle.

23. The programmer device of claim 22, wherein:

the two or more sites include at least one left ventricle site and at least one right ventricle site;

the primary site sense count is a RVS count;

the primary site pace count is a RVP count; and

the secondary site pace count is a LVP count.

24. The programmer device of claim 21, wherein the data includes both sensed intrinsic cardiac events and paced events.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein providing the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution in the histogram comprises providing the right ventricular cardiac event distribution adjacent to the left ventricular cardiac event distribution in each of the histogram bins.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein:

the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution are determined by dividing an event count in bin by a denominator;

the denominator is the sum of a total RVS count, a total RVP count, and a total LVP count; and

the LVP count includes only left ventricular pacing events in which no right ventricular pace is delivered for a corresponding cardiac cycle.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising providing an atrial event distribution in a second histogram.

25. A programmer device, comprising:

circuitry for communicating with a medical device that is adapted for acquiring data regarding cardiac events occurring at two or more sites; and

a display for providing a histogram of the data as two or more statistical distributions for the two or mores sites, wherein the statistical distributions are selected from the set consisting of;

at least two statistical distributions in a first ventricle and at least one statistical distribution in a second ventricle; and

at least two statistical distributions in a first atrium and at least one statistical distribution in a second atrium.

26. A method, comprising:

acquiring data regarding cardiac events occurring at two or more sites; and

displaying the data in a histogram as two or more statistical distributions for the two or more sites, wherein the histogram includes a right ventricular cardiac event distribution and a left ventricular cardiac event distribution.

29. A method, comprising:

acquiring data regarding both paced and sensed cardiac events occurring at a left ventricle and a right ventricle; and

providing a left ventricular cardiac event distribution adjacent to a right ventricular cardiac event distribution in a histogram having a plurality of histogram bins, wherein the left ventricular cardiac event distribution includes both paced and sensed cardiac event distributions, and the right ventricular cardiac event distribution includes both paced and sensed cardiac event distributions.

31. A histogram for displaying data regarding cardiac events as two or more statistical distributions, comprising:

a plurality of histogram bins for the two or more statistical distributions, each of the histogram bins including;

a portion of a right ventricular cardiac event distribution; and

a portion of a left ventricular cardiac event distribution.

32. The histogram of claim 31, wherein the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution are distinguished using different colors.

33. The histogram of claim 31, wherein the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution each include both a sensed intrinsic cardiac event distribution and a paced cardiac event distribution.

34. The histogram of claim 31, wherein the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution are formed by summing the sensed intrinsic cardiac event distribution with the paced cardiac event distribution.

35. The histogram of claim 31, wherein the sensed intrinsic cardiac event distribution and the paced cardiac event distribution are distinguished using different fillings.

36. The histogram of claim 31, wherein the right ventricular cardiac event distribution is adjacent to the left ventricular cardiac event distribution.

37. The histogram of claim 31, further comprising a histogram axis extending through each of the histogram bins, wherein the portion of the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the portion of the left ventricular cardiac event distribution are on opposing sides of the histogram axis.

38. The histogram of claim 31, wherein:

the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution are determined by dividing an event count in bin by a denominator;

the denominator is the sum of a total RVS count, a total RVP count, and a total LVP count; and

the LVP count includes only left ventricular pacing events in which no right ventricular pace is delivered for a corresponding cardiac cycle.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein:

the right ventricular cardiac event distribution and the left ventricular cardiac event distribution are determined by dividing an event count in bin by a denominator;

the denominator is the sum of a total RVS count, a total RVP count, and a total LVP count; and

the LVP count includes only left ventricular pacing events in which no right ventricular pace is delivered for a corresponding cardiac cycle.

39. A computer-readable medium encoded with a software program for displaying cardiac event data, the software program executing the following:

retrieving data regarding cardiac events occurring at two or more sites; and

displaying the data in a histogram as two or more statistical distributions for the two or more sites, wherein the histogram includes a right ventricular cardiac event distribution and a left ventricular cardiac event distribution.