Patent ID: 8630702

Claim:
A cardiac event detection system for detecting an acute ischemia related cardiac event in a patient comprising: (a) at least two electrodes for sensing an electrogram electrical signal from said patient's heart, at least one of the electrodes being adapted for implantation into the heart; (b) an implantable device coupled to said electrodes, said implantable device having an analog-to-digital circuit system contained therein for digitizing said electrogram electrical signal, thereby generating a digitized electrogram; (c) a processor contained in said implantable device and electrically coupled to said electrodes, said processor including means for detecting ST-segment shifted beats within the digitized electrogram and for computing the heart rate associated with various portions of the digitized electrogram, the processor further including means for detecting a cardiac event based upon both the number of ST-segment shifted beats within a set time period and the heart rate within said set time period such that the number of ST-segment shifted beats required to detect acute ischemia is greater at heart rates above a patient's normal or resting heart rate.