Patent ID: 7171268

Claim:
An implantable cardiac stimulation device that treats accelerated arrhythmias of a patient's heart, the device comprising: a sensing circuit that senses cardiac activity of a patient's right and left heart to provide first and second respective cardiac activity signals; a detector that detects an accelerated arrhythmia of the patient's heart, the detector establishing a plurality of accelerated cardiac rate zones including a fibrillation rate zone and at least one intermediate rate zone; a classifier responsive to the first and second cardiac activity signals that classifies an accelerated arrhythmia as one of fibrillation and tachycardia responsive to the detector detecting an accelerated arrhythmia having a cardiac rate within the at least one intermediate rate zones; and a therapy circuit that applies defibrillation to the heart responsive to the classifier classifying an accelerated arrhythmia as fibrillation and anti-tachycardia pacing to the heart responsive to the classifier classifying an accelerated arrhythmia as tachycardia.