Patent ID: 6370431
Filing Date: 2002-04-09
Classification: A61N

Abstract:
a pacemaker system for pacing a patient, said pacing including overdriving the patient's heart for prevention of ventricular arrhythmias, said system having ventricular generator means for generating and delivering ventricular pace pulses, and ventricular sense means for sensing QT signals, said system further comprising:QT analysis means for analyzing at least two properties of the patient's QT signal and for obtaining QT data representative variations of said at least two respective properties of said QT signal, said QT analysis means comprising means for analyzing QT interval and QT dispersion as said at least two properties; VES means for determining when ventricular extra systoles occur and for generating VES data representative of said occurrences; intervention means for determining from said QT data and said VES data when intervention is indicated order to treat a ventricular arrhythmia; and rate means for controlling said ventricular generator means to generate and deliver pacing pulses at an intervention rate greater than the patient's natural rate in response to a said indication; wherein said QT analysis means comprises means for continually determining a means value and standard deviation value of each of said QT properties and for updating said values when a respective QT property exceeds its mean value by more than n times its standard deviation.