CARDIAC EVENT CATEGORIZATION SYSTEM

• US 20080183091A1
• Filed: 03/31/2008
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Angel Medical Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Angel Medical Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: FISCHELL, TIM A., FISCHELL, SCOTT J.S., FISCHELL, ROBERT E., FISCHELL, DAVID R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,483,812 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/509
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2300/236 Glycosaminoglycans, e.g. heparin, hyaluronic acid, chondroitin
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2300/254 Enzymes, proenzymes
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2300/42 Anti-thrombotic agents, anticoagulants, anti-platelet agents
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/54 Biologically active materials, e.g. therapeutic substances A61L27/227 takes precedence

Abstract

Disclosed are methods for detecting an acute myocardial infarction (i.e., a heart attack) at the earliest possible time and promptly warning the patient that he should immediately seek medical care. The present invention includes an implantable electronic system that can sense a change in the patient'"'"'s electrogram that is indicative of a heart attack. If a heart attack is sensed, the device would then cause an implantable and/or externally located alarm to be actuated to warn the patient of his condition and a medical practitioner at a remote diagnostic center would receive the patient'"'"'s electrogram for analysis. The patient or a caretaker would then be informed to self-inject medication through a subcutaneous, pass-through drug port that can be a separate device or integrated into the implanted device that is designed for the early detection of a heart attack. The methods of the present invention include determining if a human patient is likely to have a heart attack and, if he is, then implanting within that patient a device that can sense when a heart attack occurs and alarm the patient to take appropriate actions if a heart attack does occur.

Claims

1. A system for detecting a cardiac event in a human patient, the system including:

at least two electrodes implanted in the patient for obtaining an electrical signal from the patient'"'"'s heart, the electrical signal being an electrogram; and

an implantable device designed to process the electrogram and to detect cardiac events by processing the electrogram, the implantable device designed to categorize detected cardiac events into at least two different levels of severity.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein a relatively higher level of severity event pertains to an acute myocardial infarction.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein a relatively lower level severity event pertains to chronic ischemia.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising an alarm operatively coupled to the implantable device, and wherein the implantable device is configured to cause the alarm to issue different types of alarms associated with corresponding types of cardiac events.