Method to enhance cardiac capillary growth in heart failure patients
First Claim
1. A method of treating patients suffering from heart failure, which comprises the steps of:
- stimulating the patient'"'"'s vagus nerve with electrical pulses generated at a predetermined repetition frequency to reduce the patient'"'"'s heart rate toward a target rate range below the lowest heart rate of the patient while at rest; and
keeping the stimulation frequency at a set value when the patient'"'"'s heart stabilizes at said target rate, to maintain the heart rate within said target rate range.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method is disclosed for treating patients suffering from heart failure to increase cardiac output. The patient'"'"'s vagus nerve is electrically stimulated or modulated with a sequence of substantially equally spaced pulses by an implanted neurostimulator, and the frequency of the stimulating pulses is adjusted until the patient'"'"'s heart rate reaches a target rate within a relatively stable target rate range below the low end of the patient'"'"'s customary resting heart rate. The frequency of the stimulating pulses is maintained at the frequency which ultimately produced the relatively stable target rate range so as not to deviate markedly from the target rate, at least so long as the patient remains at rest. An activity sensor associated with the implanted neurostimulator detects physical activity of the patient and adjusts the frequency of the stimulating pulses accordingly, to elevate the heart rate during periods of physical activity by the patient. When the patient ceases the activity, the vagal stimulation reverts along a prescribed fall-back path to a frequency that will reproduce the target heart rate.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1. A method of treating patients suffering from heart failure, which comprises the steps of:
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stimulating the patient'"'"'s vagus nerve with electrical pulses generated at a predetermined repetition frequency to reduce the patient'"'"'s heart rate toward a target rate range below the lowest heart rate of the patient while at rest; and
keeping the stimulation frequency at a set value when the patient'"'"'s heart stabilizes at said target rate, to maintain the heart rate within said target rate range. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of treating patients suffering from heart failure to increase cardiac output, which comprises the steps of electrically stimulating the patient'"'"'s vagus nerve with a sequence of substantially equally spaced pulses, varying the frequency of the stimulating pulses until the patient'"'"'s heart rate reaches a relatively stable target rate range below the low end of the patient'"'"'s customary resting heart rate, and then maintaining the frequency of the stimulating pulses at the frequency which ultimately produced the relatively stable target rate range so as not to deviate markedly from said stable target rate at least so long as the patient remains at rest.
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18. A device for treating patients suffering from heart failure, to increase cardiac output of the patient, comprising:
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an implantable neurostimulator for applying electrical pulses at a first predetermined frequency to the patient'"'"'s vagus nerve to lower the patient'"'"'s heart rate;
a programmable pulse frequency adjuster for applying the pulses to the vagus nerve at an adjusted frequency which is ultimately sufficient to lower the patient'"'"'s heart rate to a target rate below the normal heart rate range for a subject at rest; and
a heart rate detector for maintaining the patient'"'"'s heart rate at said target rate by controlling said adjuster to continue applying pulses at said adjusted frequency while the patient is nominally at rest. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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- 20. A method of treating patients suffering from heart failure, which comprises the steps of identifying a heart failure patient, and stimulating the vagus nerve to reduce the heart rate of the identified patient to a rate that is lower than the low end of the normal range of the heart rate of a human subject, toward promoting coronary capillary growth and coronary blood flow.
- 40. A method of treating patients suffering from heart failure, which comprises the steps of identifying a heart failure patient, and reducing the heart rate of the identified patient to a rate that is lower than the low end of the normal range of the heart rate of a human subject, toward promoting coronary capillary growth and coronary blood flow, including the steps of detecting the patient'"'"'s heart rate signal, and analyzing the detected heart rate signal for the presence of noise.
Specification