Patent ID: 8187190

Claim:
A cardiac ultrasound imaging system for helping a clinician select a pacemaker electrode site and configure a pacemaker, the system comprising: an intracardiac ultrasound imaging system configured to image a patient's heart; and a computer configured to: process images generated by the ultrasound system in order to compute a measurement of cardiac ejection volume for a given pacemaker configuration and electrode site; save two or more combinations of the corresponding pacemaker configuration, the corresponding electrode site, and the ejection volume measurement; save a cardiac dysynchrony measurement and an activation voltage for each of the saved combinations; retrieve the ejection volume measurement, the pacemaker configuration, and the electrode site of any of the save combinations; and determine a figure-of-merit value for each saved combination by applying a function comprising: F ( E,D,V )= C E ·E−C D ·D−C V ·V wherein: C E , C D , and C V are non-negative coefficients; E is the saved cardiac ejection volume or ejection fraction computed relative to a maximum cardiac volume; D is dysynchrony delay time or phase obtained from the saved cardiac dysynchrony measurement; and V is the saved activation voltage; and wherein the computer is configured to display a saved combination in conjunction with the determined figure-of-merit value for each of the saved combinations.