Implantable defibrillator system having a small capacitance valve
First Claim
1. An improved implantable defibrillator system for producing a capacitor-discharge defibrillation pulse, the implantable defibrillator system being a self-contained human implantable device including a pulse-generating capacitor means for storing an electrical charge, means for internally charging the pulse-generating capacitor means, and means for selectively discharging the electrical charge in the pulse-generating capacitor through electrodes implanted in a human patient in response to a sensing of a myocardial fibrillation in the human patient, the improvement comprising:
- the pulse-generating capacitor means having an effective capacitance value in the range of 20-100 microfarads.
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Abstract
The present invention uses the chronaxie, a characteristic time that enters into heart defibrillation. The present invention defines a figure of merit for physiologically effective current for characterizing and evaluating a defibrillation pulse. Using this figure of merit then, the present invention compares defibrillation-pulse options to determine optima for capacitance, tilt and pulse duration. The combined abilities of optima determination and quantitative comparison of options provides for shorter pulses and lower capacitance values than have been in common use in the prior art. The overall result of the present invention is the specifying of smaller, more efficient implantable defibrillator capacitor design.
16 Citations
8 Claims
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1. An improved implantable defibrillator system for producing a capacitor-discharge defibrillation pulse, the implantable defibrillator system being a self-contained human implantable device including a pulse-generating capacitor means for storing an electrical charge, means for internally charging the pulse-generating capacitor means, and means for selectively discharging the electrical charge in the pulse-generating capacitor through electrodes implanted in a human patient in response to a sensing of a myocardial fibrillation in the human patient, the improvement comprising:
the pulse-generating capacitor means having an effective capacitance value in the range of 20-100 microfarads. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Specification