Patent ID: 8145306
Filing Date: 2012-03-27
Classification: A61B,A61N

Abstract:
1. A method for determining and optimizing left ventricular synchrony during cardiac resynchronization therapy comprising in combination: identifying a patient as having perceived ventricular systolic dyssynchrony who may benefit from cardiac resynchronization therapy; implanting left ventricular and right ventricular leads in the patient's heart, each lead having a lead tip at a first end portion; positioning each lead tip initially at a location prior published studies have shown generate the greatest physiologic benefit from pacing; connecting a pacemaker to the plural leads opposite the lead tips; using a radiographic imaging system to make cine loop image recordings of the patient's heart in left anterior oblique, right anterior oblique and anterior-posterior views through at least three complete cardiac cycles during intrinsic heart rhythm and assigning time stamps to each cine frame to ascertain the position of each lead tip throughout the intrinsic cardiac cycles; transferring the intrinsic rhythm cine loop image recordings to an image compiling system for compiling into intrinsic heart rhythm data and for determining an X-axis, a Y-axis and a Z-axis coordinate for each lead tip for each time stamped cine frame; transferring the X-axis, the Y-axis and the Z-axis coordinate for each lead tip for each intrinsic rhythm time stamped cine frame to an analytical software program to determine a baseline measure of dyssynchrony and contractility at the current lead tip locations in the patient's heart; activating the pacemaker to send electrical pacing impulses through the ventricular leads to the lead tips for paced activation of the patient's heart; using the radiographic imaging system to make cine loop image recordings of the heart in left anterior oblique, right anterior oblique and anterior-posterior views through at least three complete cardiac cycles during the paced heart rhythm and assigning time stamps to each cine frame to ascertain the position of each lead tip throughout the paced cardiac cycles; transferring the paced rhythm cine loop image recordings to the image compiling system for compiling into paced heart rhythm data and for determining the X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis coordinate for each lead tip for each paced time stamped cine frame; transferring the X-axis, the Y-axis and the Z-axis coordinate for each lead tip for each paced rhythm time stamped cine frame to the analytical software program to determine a measure of paced ventricular dyssynchrony and paced ventricular contractility at the current lead tip locations in the patient's heart; plotting the intrinsic heart rhythm coordinate data and plotting the paced heart rhythm coordinate data and generating a visual display showing the motion of the lead tips by time so that the intrinsic heart rhythm coordinate data may be compared against the paced heart rhythm coordinate data; interpreting the intrinsic heart rhythm coordinate data and the paced heart rhythm coordinate data to determine if the paced activation of the patient's heart decreases the ventricular dyssynchrony relative to the intrinsic ventricular dyssynchrony and increases ventricular contractility relative to the intrinsic contractility; and ending the cardiac resynchronization therapy if the interpretation of the paced heart rhythm data compared against the intrinsic heart rhythm data shows increased contractility and increased synchrony with paced activation of the patient's heart at the current lead tip locations.