Rate responsive cardiac pacemaker
DCFirst Claim
1. An implantable variable rate pacemaker adaptive to patient exercise, comprisingmeans for detecting movements of the patient,means responsive to the detected movements for discriminating between those of said detected movements which are indicative of physical exercise by the patient and those of said detected movements which are attributable to other than physical exercise, andmeans responsive to said detected movements indicative of physical exercise for incrementally adjusting the rate of said pacemaker according to the level of said physical exercise.
6 Assignments
Litigations
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An implantable variable rate pacemaker adaptive to patient exercise detects movements of the patient, and discriminates between detected movements indicative of physical exercise by the patient and detected movements indicative of non-exercise. The pacemaker responds to the detected movements indicative of physical exercise by incrementally adjusting the pacing rate according to the level of the physical exercise. The detection of movement is performed by an accelerometer in the form of a mechanoelectrical transducer which converts mechanical movements to an electrical signal having a designated parameter representative of the intensity of the mechanical movements. The accelerometer is housed within and isolated from the pulse generator case of the pacemaker and is implemented as part of a semiconductor device. Discrimination between the detected movements indicative of physical exercise and of non-exercise is performed by an electrical circuit integral with the semiconductor device which processes the electrical signal generated by the transducer to selectively limit the designated parameter thereof to appreciable values in response to those mechanical movements in a preselected frequency range.
40 Citations
17 Claims
-
1. An implantable variable rate pacemaker adaptive to patient exercise, comprising
means for detecting movements of the patient, means responsive to the detected movements for discriminating between those of said detected movements which are indicative of physical exercise by the patient and those of said detected movements which are attributable to other than physical exercise, and means responsive to said detected movements indicative of physical exercise for incrementally adjusting the rate of said pacemaker according to the level of said physical exercise.
- 8. A variable rate pacemaker responsive to patient exercise, comprising motion sensing means for detecting physical activity of the patient and producing an electrical signal having an amplitude value representative of the intensity of said physical activity, means for selectively limiting said electrical signal to appreciable amplitude values for said detected physical activity which is related to true physical exercise by the patient in contrast to said detected physical activity which is related to internal and external disturbances on the patient, and means responsive to the amplitude values of said selectively limited electrical signal for setting the rate of said pacemaker at a respective one of several programmed incremental rates according to intensity of said physical exercise.
- 10. A pacemaker having a variable rate adaptive to physical exercise by the patient, comprising means responsive to movements of the pacemaker for distinguishing between movements of a first type associated with physical exercise and movements of a second type associated with factors other than physical exercise, and means responsive to movements of said first type distinguished by said distinguishing means for selectively producing transistions between several different preset rates of said pacemaker according to the workload of the physical exercise as manifested by the intensity of movements of said first type.
-
16. A process for controlling the heart rate of a patient by artificial stimulation of the heart at a variable rate according to patient exercise, comprising the steps of
detecting movements of the patient, discriminating between those of said detected movements indicative of physical exercise by the patient and those of said detected movements attributable to other than physical exercise by the patient, and responding to said detected movements indicative of physical exercise by incrementally adjusting said stimulation rate according to the level of said physical exercise.
-
17. Method of pacing a patient'"'"'s heart at a variable rate adaptive to physical exercise by the patient, comprising the steps of detecting movements of the patient and distinguishing between said detected movements of a first type associated with physical exercise and said detected movements of a second type associated with factors other than physical exercise, and selectively producing transistions between several different preselected pacing rates according to the workload of the physical exercise as manifested by the intensity of detected movements of said first type.
Specification