Pacemaker for detecting and terminating a tachycardia
First Claim
1. An antitachycardia pacemaker, comprising:
- means for detecting electrical cardiac events occurring in at least one chamber of the heart;
means for detecting said events which exceed a selected tachycardia rate;
means for determining the relative rate stability of the events which exceed said tachycardia rate;
means responsive to said event detecting means and said stability determining means for detecting a pace-terminable tachycardia when at least a first selected number of said events exceed said tachycardia rate and a second selected number of said events have a defined rate stability; and
means responsive to said pace terminable tachycardia detecting means for pacing the heart to terminate the tachycardia.
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Abstract
A heart pacemaker detects pace-terminable tachycardia conditions in the atrium of the heart in accordance with selected high rate, rate stability, sudden onset and sustained high rate criteria. When a pace-terminable tachycardia is detected, programmed treatment modalities are applied to attempt to terminate the tachycardia. The tachycardia is treated by applying timed bursts of electrical pulses in formats defined by programmed primary and secondary treatment modalities. The primary and secondary treatments may be applied in an order which is dependent upon the prior successful treatment of similar tachycardias. The pacemaker may also utilize remembered treatment values which were successfully applied to treat similar tachycardias. The pacemaker may be programmed to restart the primary and secondary modes of treatment in the event that the modes initially failed to terminate a tachycardia. The pacemaker may also be programmed to limit the rate of burst pulses to avoid overstimulating the heart.
456 Citations
38 Claims
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1. An antitachycardia pacemaker, comprising:
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means for detecting electrical cardiac events occurring in at least one chamber of the heart; means for detecting said events which exceed a selected tachycardia rate; means for determining the relative rate stability of the events which exceed said tachycardia rate; means responsive to said event detecting means and said stability determining means for detecting a pace-terminable tachycardia when at least a first selected number of said events exceed said tachycardia rate and a second selected number of said events have a defined rate stability; and means responsive to said pace terminable tachycardia detecting means for pacing the heart to terminate the tachycardia. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. An antitachycardia pacemaker selected treatment modalities to terminate the tachycardia, said pacemaker comprising,
means for detecting electrical cardiac events occurring in at least one chamber of the heart; -
means for detecting said electrical cardiac events which exceed a selected tachycardia rate; means for determining a relative suddenness of onset comprising a rate of change of rate of said electrical cardiac events; means responsive to said event detecting means and said relative suddenness of onset determining means for detecting a pace-terminable tachycardia when a first selected number of said cardiac events exceed said tachycardia rate and said events have an onset which satisfies a sudden onset criterion; and means responsive to said pace-terminable tachycardia detecting means for pacing the heart to terminate the tachycardia. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. An antitachycardia pacemaker comprising:
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means for detecting electrical cardiac events occurring in at least one chamber of the heart. means for counting a first electrical event if the time interval between the first cardiac event and an immediately preceding event is less than a selected tachycardia time interval, and for counting successive cardiac events following said first event if the time interval between each of said successive events and its immediately preceding event is less than said selected tachycardia time interval and does not vary by more than a selected degree of interval change from a selected rate stability interval, means responsive to said counting means for detecting a pace-terminable tachycardia whenever a selected number of events is counted, and means responsive to said pace-terminable tachycardia detecting means for pacing the heart to terminate the tachycardia. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38)
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Specification