SELECTIVELY IMPLEMENTABLE DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING CIRCUIT FOR AN IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICE

• US 20070255331A1
• Filed: 04/28/2006
• Published: 11/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Gillberg, Jeffrey, Goedeke, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 8,099,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/36
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0209 adapted for power saving
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37 Monitoring; Protecting
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/372 Arrangements in connection with the implantation of stimulators
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/378 Electrical supply

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention include an implantable medical device having a digital signal processing circuit associated with an implantable medical device function. The digital signal processing circuit can be selectively implementable according to the clinical need of a patient. Embodiments of the invention also include methods of making and using such implantable medical devices.

Claims

1. An implantable medical device comprising a hermitically sealed enclosure and a digital signal processing circuit associated with an implantable medical device function disposed therein, the digital signal processing circuit being selectively implementable to conserve energy based on operational system demand of the IMD.

2. The implantable medical device of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of selectively implementable digital signal processing circuits.

3. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the digital signal processing circuit includes an analog to digital converter, an amplifier and a digital signal processor.

4. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the selectively implementable digital signal processing circuit includes a function selected from the group consisting of a discriminator, a filter, a peak detector, a wavelet template matcher, a noise detector and rejecter, and combinations thereof.

5. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein the implantable medical device is selected from the group consisting of hemodynamic monitors, cardioverter-defibrillators, cardiac pacemakers, cardiac resynchronization therapy pacing devices, drug delivery devices, subcutaneous monitoring devices, subcutaneous therapy devices, and combinations of such devices.

6. A method of reducing current drain in an implantable medical device comprising the steps of providing an implantable medical device comprising a hermitically sealed enclosure and a digital signal processing circuit associated with the implantable medical device function disposed therein, the implantable medical device automatically selectively implementing the digital signal processing circuit according to clinical need.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the implantable medical device automatically selectively implements the digital signal processing circuits in response to sensing an event.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein selectively implementing the digital signal processing circuit includes one of enabling, disabling and a combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the disabling includes switching the digital signal processing circuit off so that it does not draw current.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the disabling the digital signal processing circuit reduces current drain by about 100 nanoamps.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the digital signal processor converts an analog signal to a digital signal, amplifies the digital signal, processes the digital signal, and sends the processed digital signal to a microprocessor.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the implantable medical device is selected from the group consisting of hemodynamic monitors, cardioverter-defibrillators, cardiac pacemakers, cardiac resynchronization therapy pacing devices, drug delivery devices, subcutaneous monitoring devices, subcutaneous therapy devices, and combinations of such devices.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the implantable medical device periodically selectively implements the digital signal processing circuit.

14. A method of customizing an implantable medical device to a patient comprising the steps of providing an implantable medical device comprising a hermitically sealed enclosure and a digital signal processing circuit associated with the implantable medical device function disposed therein, and manually programming the implantable medical device by selectively implementing the digital signal processing circuit according to a clinical need of the patient.

15. The method of claim 14, the digital signal processing circuit being selectively implemented by a clinician at the time of implantation.

16. The method of claim 14, the implantable medical device being provided with the digital signal processing circuit enabled and the digital signal processing circuit being disabled during the manual programming step.

17. The method of claim 14, the implantable medical device being provided with the digital signal processing circuit disabled and the digital signal processing circuit being enabled during the manual programming step.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein selectively implementing the digital signal processing circuit includes one of enabling, disabling and a combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein disabling includes switching the digital signal processing circuit off to prevent current drain.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the implantable medical device is selected from the group consisting of hemodynamic monitors, cardioverter-defibrillators, cardiac pacemakers, cardiac resynchronization therapy pacing devices, drug delivery devices, subcutaneous monitoring devices, subcutaneous therapy devices, and combinations of such devices.