Patent ID: 7069070
Filing Date: 2006-06-27
Classification: A61B,A61N

Abstract:
1. A method for operating an implantable medical device in order to assess a subject's autonomic balance, comprising: sensing electrical activity in a ventricle and generating a ventricular sense signal when the sensed electrical activity exceeds a predetermined threshold; measuring time intervals between each pair of successive ventricular senses, referred to as RR intervals, over a predetermined long-term period, where N is the total number of RR interval measurements during the predetermined long-term period and the measured RR intervals RR computing mean values M computing mean values M computing a mean value of squared successive differences between the RR intervals in the RR time series, referred to as [rMSSD] estimating a ratio of the low frequency content in the RR time series between approximately 1/x Hz and 1/y Hz and higher frequency content in the RR time series, referred to as LF/HF, as: wherein K is a defined constant and LF/HF is reflective of the subject's autonomic balance.