Apparatus and method for discriminating between heart rhythms with similar atrial and ventricular rates
First Claim
1. An implantable medical device for monitoring and classifying cardiac rhythms of a patient'"'"'s heart, comprising:
- means for sensing atrial and ventricular events of the heart;
means for measuring intervals "AV" between atrial and ventricular contractions of the heart;
means for measuring and storing "AVnsr", the AV internal of the patient'"'"'s heart rhythm during resting normal sinus rhythm thereof;
means for classifying said rhythms based on the timing of said sensed events;
said classifying means including means for discriminating between tachycardias of physiological origin and tachycardias of pathological origin having overlapping ventricular rates, each of said tachycardia'"'"'s having similar atrial and ventricular rates and each of said tachycardias having ventricular-ventricular intervals which are less than a predetermined minimum normal sinus interval, said discriminating means including means for forming an interval timing window having a first predetermined threshold shorter than said AVnse interval and a second predetermined threshold longer than said AVnsr interval;
said classifying means including mean for classifying as pathological origin those of said tachycardias in which the Av intervals fall outside of said interval timing window; and
said device further including means for utilizing the results of said classifying means.
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Abstract
An apparatus and a method for discriminating between tachycardias of physiological origin, and those of pathological origin having similar atrial and ventricular rates, are disclosed. The apparatus includes two sensing electrodes for registering the electrograms from the atrium and the ventricle of the heart. There is further included a signal processing element for determining the times of atrial and ventricular events, and an algorithm for classifying the heart rhythm. The algorithm includes a means for discriminating between different types of heart rhythms having overlapping ventricular rates and having similar atrial and ventricular rates. The method utilizes an analysis of the relationships between successive atrial and ventricular intervals (i.e., atrial-atrial (AA), ventricular-ventricular (VV) and atrial-ventricular (AV) intervals) in discriminating between such heart rhythms.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. An implantable medical device for monitoring and classifying cardiac rhythms of a patient'"'"'s heart, comprising:
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means for sensing atrial and ventricular events of the heart; means for measuring intervals "AV" between atrial and ventricular contractions of the heart; means for measuring and storing "AVnsr", the AV internal of the patient'"'"'s heart rhythm during resting normal sinus rhythm thereof; means for classifying said rhythms based on the timing of said sensed events; said classifying means including means for discriminating between tachycardias of physiological origin and tachycardias of pathological origin having overlapping ventricular rates, each of said tachycardia'"'"'s having similar atrial and ventricular rates and each of said tachycardias having ventricular-ventricular intervals which are less than a predetermined minimum normal sinus interval, said discriminating means including means for forming an interval timing window having a first predetermined threshold shorter than said AVnse interval and a second predetermined threshold longer than said AVnsr interval; said classifying means including mean for classifying as pathological origin those of said tachycardias in which the Av intervals fall outside of said interval timing window; and said device further including means for utilizing the results of said classifying means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of monitoring and classifying cardiac rhythms of a patient'"'"'s heart comprising the steps of:
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sensing atrial and ventricular events of the heart; measuring intervals "AV" between atrial and ventricular contractions of the heart; measuring and storing "AVnse", the AV interval of the patient'"'"'s heat rhythm during resting normal sinus rhythm thereof; forming an interval timing window having a first predetermined threshold shorter than said AVnsr interval and a second predetermined threshold longer than said AVnsr interval; discriminating between tachycardias of physiological origin and tachycardias of pathological origin having overlapping rates, each of said tachycardias having similar atrial and ventricular rates and each of said tachycardias having ventricular-ventricular intervals which are less than a predetermined minimum normal sinus interval, by classifying as of pathological origin those of said tachycardias in which the AV intervals of the cardiac rhythm fall outside of said interval timing window; and utilizing the results of said discriminating step. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification