Leadless fully automatic pacemaker follow-up

• US 20020123770A1
• Filed: 12/27/2000
• Published: 09/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Combs, William J., Berg, Gary
• Granted Patent: US 6,584,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/9
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3702 Physiological parameters A61N1/365 takes precedence; evoked response A61N1/371
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37252 Details of algorithms or data aspects of communication system, e.g. handshaking, transmitting specific data or segmenting data
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37288 Communication to several implantable medical devices within one patient

Abstract

A leadless fully automatic follow-up (LFAPF) device that is triggered into operation either locally or remotely is implemented extra-corporeally to access cardiac data such as ECGs stored in one or more implantable medical device (IMDs) implanted in one or more patients. A telemetry unit is used in the LFAPF to transmit and test stored data in the IMDs. The telemetry unit implements a series of adjustable commands depending on the desired level of detail of the follow-up. An alternate embodiment representing intra-corporeal use of an additional device includes cardiac data monitoring and cardioversion pulse synchronization in cooperation with another IMD such as a pacer.

Claims

1. A leadless fully automatic pacemaker follow-up (LFADF) device with adjustable transmission for cardiac data, the device comprising:

a wireless transmission unit extra-corporeally dispensed having a data communications link with one or more implanted medical devices, implanted in one or more patients; and

means for transmitting a signal to said one or more implanted medical devices to uplink and transmit the cardiac data;

means for initiating said wireless transmission unit to send said signal to said one or more implanted medical devices via said data communications link.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein said wireless transmission unit includes a telemetry unit to transmit said signal to one or more implanted medical devices to up link and transmit the cardiac data.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the cardiac data includes digitally encoded ECG data.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein said ECG data is decoded and displayed as tracing by the LFAPF de vice.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein said adjustable transmission includes one of a full interrogation and a partial interrogation regimen.

6. A LFAPF device including a plurality of implanted medical series forming an arrangement for transmitting cardiac data intra-corporeally, the arrangement comprising:

a first implanted device;

a second implanted device; and

means for transmitting cardiac data from said first implanted device to said second implanted device.

7. The arrangement of claim 6 wherein said first implanted device is a cardiac pacemaker.

8. The arrangement of claim 6 wherein said second implanted device is a cardioverter-defibrillator.

9. The arrangement of claim 6 wherein said cardiac data includes ECG tracings.

10. The arrangement of claim 6 wherein said means transmitting includes subcutaneous electrode arrays.

11. A method for collecting and transmitting a plurality of physiological data from a memory bank of an implanted medical device (IND) in cooperation with a fully automatic pacemaker follow-up (LFAPF) unit, the method comprising:

initiating at least one command to start the collecting method;

interrogating the memory bank of the IND;

collecting said plurality of physiological data; and

transmitting the data to a patient'"'"'s file.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein a telemetry unit is implemented to initiate the at least one command.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the memory bank interrogation involves substantially full interrogation of the IMD memory bank including transmission of results in a patient session file.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein a magnet mode is invoked and SEA is implemented to collect at least one of said plurality of physiological data for a set of time intervals.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said at least one of said plurality of physiological data includes an ECG tracing.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein said set of time intervals includes a number of seconds.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein a non-magnet mode is invoked by suspending a magnet mode to collect another one of said plurality of physiological data.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said another one of such data includes a non-magnet ECG tracing.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein the specific types of said plurality of physiological data are collected after triggering a search in the memory bank.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said specific types of data include at least one of a ventricular capture auto-threshold, atrial capture auto-threshold, a ventricular sensing threshold, and an atrial sensing threshold.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said ventricular sensing threshold is automatically determined.

22. The method of claim 11 wherein a printed report is generated including all the data transmitted to the patient'"'"'s file.