Patent ID: 7899538

Claim:
A method of assessing heart failure status in a patient, comprising: measuring a current inter-ventricular cardiac conduction time (IVCT); comparing the measured current IVCT to one of a programmable threshold IVCT and a previously measured IVCT; and responsive to the current IVCT differing from said one of the previously measured IVCT and the threshold IVCT, performing one of: storing the current IVCT in a memory structure, notifying a patient of a possible change in cardiac status, notifying a clinician of a possible change in cardiac status, generating an alarm, detecting myocardial ischemia, wherein detecting myocardial ischemia includes: comparing the detected conduction time to a threshold conduction time; and comparing a rate of change of the detected inter-ventricular cardiac conduction time to a range of change of inter-ventricular cardiac conduction times; and indicating a possible change in cardiac status when the detected inter-ventricular cardiac conduction time exceeds the threshold inter-ventricular cardiac conduction time and the rate of change of the detected inter-ventricular cardiac conduction time is within the rate of change.