Patent ID: 7194304

Claim:
An implantable cardiac defibrillation assembly comprising: at least one implantable lead including a defibrillation electrode adapted for placement in a chamber of the heart and including a connector, the lead further adapted to provide near-field and far-field pacing electrode configurations; and an implantable defibrillation device having a ventricular pacing pulse generator that provides ventricular pacing pulses and a pulse generator that provides defibrillation pulses, the device configured to receive the connector to couple the defibrillation electrode to the pulse generator, the device further including a system that evaluates and conditions the assembly to provide defibrillation therapy to the heart without requiring arrhythmia induction of the heart, wherein the system is operative to: generate a test pulse, measure an electric field resulting from the test pulse, and to determine a test-pulse defibrillation threshold based on the measured electric field generated by the test pulse and a predefined electric field value required to defibrillate the heart; measure a near-field pacing threshold and determine a near-field-pacing defibrillation threshold based on the measured near-field pacing threshold and a predefined scaling factor; measure a far-field pacing threshold and determine a far-field-pacing defibrillation threshold based on the measured far-field pacing threshold and a predefined scaling factor; and determine a defibrillation threshold based on an average of at least two of a test-pulse defibrillation threshold, a near-field-pacing-threshold defibrillation threshold and a far-field-pacing-threshold defibrillation threshold.