Patent ID: 6134473
Filing Date: 2000-10-17
Classification: A61N

Abstract:
A medical device capable of providing intra-cardiac electrical stimulating pulses to a patient's heart and detecting an evoked cardiac response to the stimulating pulses, comprising:means for delivering electrical stimulating pulses to a patient's heart to evoke a cardiac contraction, each electrical stimulating pulse causing a post-delivery stimulation polarization artifact signal that decays from a starting potential to a quiescent potential over a post-delivery time period;means for sensing a physiologic cardiac signal spontaneously originating in the patient's heart;means for sensing a cardiac sensed signal comprising the decaying post-delivery stimulation polarization artifact signal and a physiologic evoked response signal of the heart signifying and accompanying an evoked cardiac contraction being operable during the post-delivery time period; anda programmable microprocessor means for processing the cardiac sensed signal for a predetermined time period following the delivery of the electrical stimulating pulse to detect the evoked response signal within the cardiac sensed signal, if present, by use of a peak tracking detection algorithm that detects a change in polarity of the cardiac sensed signal during its decay.