Patent ID: 7613512

Claim:
A cardiac medical device for delivering anti-tachycardia pacing, comprising: circuitry for delivering cardiac pacing pulses; an input signal processing circuit; a plurality of electrodes operatively connected to the circuitry and to the input signal processing circuit and implantable within a patient; and a controller electrically connected to the circuitry for delivering pacing pulses and to the input signal processing circuit, the controller detecting a tachycardia and controlling the circuitry to deliver a plurality of pacing pulses via the plurality of electrodes in response to detection of the tachycardia via the electrodes, the plurality of pacing pulses including atrial pacing pulses and ventricular pacing pulses, wherein one or more of the atrial pacing pulses is delivered out of phase with a corresponding one or more of the ventricular pacing pulses, and wherein the controller is configured to gradually shift a phase difference between the delivered atrial pacing pulses and the delivered ventricular pacing pulses over a predetermined number of pacing cycles until the pacing pulses are delivered in phase.