Patent ID: 9101772
Filing Date: 2015-08-11
Classification: A61N

Abstract:
1. A method of cardiac pacing, comprising: sensing depolarizations of an atrium and a ventricle of a patient's heart using an implantable cardiac pacemaker; delivering atrial pacing pulses to the atrium of the patient's heart using the pacemaker; at a selected time following a conducted depolarization of the atrium resulting in a sensed ventricular depolarization, delivering an atrial coupled (ACP) atrial pacing pulse; wherein the selected time is selected such that an atrial paced beat resulting from the delivered ACP atrial pacing pulse is not conducted to the ventricle because the ventricle is in a refractory state; examining the sensed depolarizations for an occurrence of an unscheduled depolarization; and responsive to occurrence of one unscheduled depolarization, ceasing delivery of the ACP atrial pacing pulses, wherein ceasing delivery of the ACP atrial pacing pulses further comprises withholding delivery and not initiating delivery of the ACP atrial pacing pulses in the event that the unscheduled depolarization begins an accumulating tachycardia evidence counter of an ongoing tachycardia episode or until such time as either the evidence counter reaches a preset threshold and a tachycardia episode is declared or the evidence counter is reset to a nominal or null value.