Method and apparatus for detecting an internal pacemaker pulse
First Claim
1. An apparatus capable of detecting an internal pacing pulse generated by an internal pacemaker, the apparatus comprising:
- (a) a set of electrodes for monitoring twelve lead electrocardiogram signals;
(b) a processing unit electronically coupled to the set of electrodes to receive twelve lead electrocardiogram signals; and
(c) a storage medium coupled to the processing unit for storing the twelve lead electrocardiogram signals and program instructions executed by the processing unit that determine whether at least one of the twelve lead electrocardiogram signals includes the internal pacing pulse by;
(i) determining a short term energy associated with said at least one lead;
(ii) determining a long term energy associated with said at least one lead; and
(iii) determining if a ratio of the short term energy to the long term energy is greater than a predetermined threshold value.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A defibrillator (8) is disclosed that analyzes a 12-lead ECG signal of a patient (25) to detect internal pacing pulses generated by an internal pacemaker (26). At least one of the twelve leads, e.g., lead II, is passed through a low pass filter (28) followed by an analog-to-digital converter (16). The digitized lead II signal is then applied to a digital bandpass filter to remove low and high frequency noise. Using the digital, bandpass filtered, lead II signal, a short term energy (s) and a long term energy (r) are computed. The short term energy (s) consists mostly internal pacing pulse energy, while the long term energy (r) essentially consists of the energy associated with background noise. If the ratio of the short term energy (s) to the long term energy (r) is greater than a predetermined threshold, or if the pair of energy values falls within a range of values defined as a function of the predetermined threshold and absolute noise, a pacing pulse is detected.
37 Citations
25 Claims
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1. An apparatus capable of detecting an internal pacing pulse generated by an internal pacemaker, the apparatus comprising:
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(a) a set of electrodes for monitoring twelve lead electrocardiogram signals; (b) a processing unit electronically coupled to the set of electrodes to receive twelve lead electrocardiogram signals; and (c) a storage medium coupled to the processing unit for storing the twelve lead electrocardiogram signals and program instructions executed by the processing unit that determine whether at least one of the twelve lead electrocardiogram signals includes the internal pacing pulse by; (i) determining a short term energy associated with said at least one lead; (ii) determining a long term energy associated with said at least one lead; and (iii) determining if a ratio of the short term energy to the long term energy is greater than a predetermined threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for detecting an internal pacing pulse produced by an internal pacemaker, the method comprising:
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(a) providing a processing unit for computing and comparing energy values; (b) computing in the processing unit a short term energy substantially representative of an internal pacing pulse energy; (c) computing in the processing unit a long term energy substantially representative of noise; and (d) comparing in the processing unit the short term energy to the long term energy to determine if a significant increase in the short term energy has occurred in comparison to the long term energy. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for detecting an internal pacing pulse produced by an internal pacemaker, wherein the internal pacing pulse is contained in an electrocardiogram signal, the method comprising:
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(a) providing a processing unit for determining and comparing energy values; (b) determining in the processing unit a short term energy associated with at least one lead of the electrocardiogram signal; (c) determining in the processing unit a long term energy associated with said at least one lead; and (d) determining in the processing unit if a ratio of the short term energy to the long term energy is greater than a predetermined threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification