Method and apparatus to determine the relative energy expenditure for a plurality of pacing vectors

• US 8,401,646 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2011
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Stadler, Robert W., Demmer, Wade M., Sheldon, Todd J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Manual, George
• Application Number:
  US13/194,100
• Publication Number:
  US 20120101546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 599 Days
• Field of Search: 607/28
• US Class Current: 607/28
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3622 comprising two or more electrodes co-operating with different heart regions
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3686 configured for selecting the electrode configuration on a lead A61N1/3688 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3708 for power depletion
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3712 Auto-capture, i.e. automatic adjustment of the stimulation threshold

Abstract

A medical device system determines and displays relative energy expenditure information for programmable parameter values. The system establishes a programmable parameter and multiple values of the parameter to be compared. A module performs a measurements for each of the multiple values and related to energy expenditure of a battery of an implantable medical device when operating according to each of the multiple parameter values. An energy expenditure for each of the values is computed using the measurements, and a graphical user interface is generated for displaying information corresponding to the computed energy expenditure for multiple parameter values.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

establishing a programmable parameter and a plurality of values of the parameter to be compared;

enabling a module to perform a measurement for each of the plurality of values and related to energy expenditure of a battery of an implantable medical device operating according to each of the plurality of values;

implementing a processor to compute an energy expenditure for each of the plurality of values using the measurements; and

generating a graphical user interface displaying information corresponding to the computed energy expenditure for the plurality of values.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing a programmable parameter and plurality of values of the parameter comprises storing in memory of the implantable medical device a plurality of pacing electrode vectors available for pacing a heart chamber.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein enabling a module to perform measurements comprises enabling a capture threshold measurement module to perform capture threshold measurements for each of the plurality of pacing electrode vectors and enabling an impedance measurement module to perform impedance measurements for each of the plurality of pacing electrode vectors.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein performing the capture threshold measurements comprises measuring a conduction time and comparing the conduction time to a capture detection threshold.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising implementing the processor to compute the energy expenditure for each of the plurality of values using the capture threshold measurements, the impedance measurements, and a safety pacing margin.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising enabling the implantable medical device to automatically select one of the plurality of pacing vectors having a minimum computed energy expenditure for pacing the heart chamber.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a predicted frequency of therapy delivery and using the predicted frequency in computing the energy expenditures.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the graphical user interface comprises computing an estimated longevity of the implantable medical device power source for each of the at least two parameter values.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising establishing a reference longevity and displaying a difference in longevity relative to the reference longevity for each of the parameter values.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising measuring a physiological benefit associated with each of the plurality of parameter values, determining a relative physiological benefit for each of the plurality of parameter values with respect to one of the parameter values, and displaying the relative physiological benefit corresponding to each of the plurality of parameter values in the graphical user interface.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein measuring the physiological benefit comprises measuring an intrinsic activation time at each of a plurality of pacing electrodes, and determining the relative physiological benefit for each of the plurality of values comprises determining a difference between the intrinsic activation times at each of the plurality of pacing electrodes and one of the plurality associated with a longest activation time.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether an undesired side effect is associated with each of the plurality of parameter values and displaying in the graphical user interface information corresponding to the presence of an undesired side effect for each of the plurality of parameter values.

13. An implantable medical device system, comprising:

a programmer comprising a processor, a user interface and a telemetry module; and

an implantable medical device comprising a battery, a telemetry circuit, a module, and a processor and associated memory, the implantable medical device configured to establish a programmable parameter and a plurality of values of the parameter to be compared;

enable the module to perform a measurement for each of the plurality of values and related to energy expenditure of the battery when operating according to each of the plurality of values;

implement the processor to compute an energy expenditure for each of the plurality of values using the measurements; and

transmit energy expenditure information to the programmer,

the programmer configured to generate a graphical user interface displaying information corresponding to the computed energy expenditure for the plurality of values.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein establishing a programmable parameter and plurality of values of the parameter comprises storing in memory of the implantable medical device a plurality of pacing electrode vectors available for pacing a heart chamber.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein enabling the module to perform measurements comprises enabling a capture threshold measurement module to perform capture threshold measurements for each of the plurality of pacing electrode vectors and enabling an impedance measurement module to perform impedance measurements for each of the plurality of pacing electrode vectors.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein performing capture threshold measurements comprises measuring a conduction time and comparing the conduction time to a capture detection threshold.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising implementing the processor to compute the energy expenditure for each of the plurality of values using the capture threshold measurements, the impedance measurements, and a safety pacing margin.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the implantable medical device is enabled to automatically select one of the plurality of pacing vectors having a minimum computed energy expenditure for pacing the heart chamber.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to establish a predicted frequency of therapy delivery and using the predicted frequency in computing the energy expenditures.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein generating the graphical user interface comprises computing an estimated longevity of the implantable medical device power source for each of the at least two parameter values.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein generating the graphical user interface further comprises establishing a reference longevity and displaying a difference in longevity relative to the reference longevity for each of the parameter values.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the implantable medical device is further configured to measure a physiological benefit associated with each of the plurality of parameter values, determine a relative physiological benefit for each of the plurality of parameter values with respect to one of the parameter values,

wherein generating the graphical user interface comprises displaying the relative physiological benefit corresponding to each of the plurality of parameter values in the graphical user interface.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein measuring the physiological benefit comprises measuring an intrinsic activation time at each of a plurality of pacing electrodes, and determining the relative physiological benefit for each of the plurality of values comprises determining a difference between the intrinsic activation times at each of the plurality of pacing electrodes and one of the plurality associated with a longest activation time.

24. The system of claim 13, wherein the implantable medical device is further configured to determine whether an undesired side effect is associated with each of the plurality of parameter values and generating the graphical user interface further comprises displaying information corresponding to the presence of an undesired side effect for each of the plurality of parameter values.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions which when implemented in an implantable medical device system cause the system to perform a method, the method comprising:

establishing a programmable parameter and a plurality of values of the parameter to be compared;

performing a measurement for each of the plurality of values and related to energy expenditure of a battery of an implantable medical device operating according to each of the plurality of values;

computing an energy expenditure for each of the plurality of values using the measurements; and

generating a graphical user interface displaying information corresponding to the computed energy expenditure for the plurality of values.