Patent ID: 7917210

Claim:
A cardiac pacing system, comprising: a sensing circuit to sense one or more signals indicative of an ischemic event; an ischemia detector, coupled to the sensing circuit, to detect the ischemic event from the one or more signals; a pulse output circuit to deliver pacing pulses; a control circuit, coupled to the ischemia detector and the pulse output circuit, to control the delivery of the pacing pulses, the control circuit including: a cardiac protection pacing sequence initiator programmed to initiate one or more cardiac protection pacing sequences in response to the detection of the ischemic event, the one or more cardiac protection pacing sequences each including alternating pacing and non-pacing periods, the pacing periods each having a pacing duration during which a plurality of the pacing pulses is delivered, the non-pacing periods each having a non-pacing duration during which none of the pacing pulses is delivered; and a cardiac protection pacing timer programmed to time the one or more cardiac protection pacing sequences each including the alternating pacing and non-pacing periods, the pacing periods each having a pacing duration between approximately 5 seconds and 30 minutes, the non-pacing periods each having a non-pacing duration between approximately 5 seconds and 30 minutes; and an implantable medical device including at least the ischemia detector, the pulse output circuit, and the control circuit.