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Automatic external cardioverter/defibrillator

  • US 5,474,574 A
  • Filed: 06/24/1992
  • Issued: 12/12/1995
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/24/1992
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A programmable external cardioverter/defibrillator device for automatically detecting cardiac arrhythmias and administering therapy, said device effectively discriminating between signals received from a patient that represent the actual condition of a patient'"'"'s heart and signal noise or artifact, said system being further adaptable in detection and therapy from patient to patient, said system comprising:

  • at least one external sensor, said sensor detecting cardiac signals from outside of the body of the patient and producing a detection signal representing said cardiac signals;

    a signal noise and artifact discrimination controller connected to receive said detection signal, wherein said controller filters noise and artifact from the detection signal and generates a filtered detection signal so that the system can accurately detect the actual condition of the patient'"'"'s heart;

    programmable control circuitry having an alterable parameter memory adapted to receive and store vital parameters which are changeable by an operator, said control circuitry further having processing logic coupled to said parameter memory and to said signal noise and artifact discrimination controller, wherein said processing logic receives said filtered detection signal and is responsive to said filtered detection signal and the parameters in said parameter memory to automatically detect and identify types of cardiac arrhythmias, said processing logic further automatically selecting a first predetermined energy to be delivered for electrical therapy when a life-threatening arrhythmia is detected, wherein said first predetermined energy is selected based upon the type of arrhythmia identified, said processing logic further monitoring the filtered detection signal for a time interval sufficient to determine if cardioversion or defibrillation has occurred after said first predetermined energy has been delivered to said patient, and automatically selecting and delivering a second predetermined energy having a level at least equal to a level of said first predetermined energy if cardioversion or defibrillation has not occurred, wherein said processing logic generates control signals indicating the energy level when an arrhythmia has been detected; and

    cardioverter/defibrillator circuitry coupled to said processing logic and to said at least two energy delivery electrodes, wherein said cardioverter/defibrillator circuitry is responsive to said control signals received from said processing logic to automatically deliver therapeutic electrical stimuli via said energy delivery electrodes at the first predetermined energy when an arrhythmia has been detected, and at said second predetermined energy when an arrhythmia persists after delivery of said first predetermined energy.

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