Patent ID: 8588896

Claim:
A method of cardiac signal analysis in an implantable medical device (IMD), the IMD including a number of implantable electrodes and operational circuitry coupled to the implantable electrodes for performing the method of cardiac signal analysis, the method comprising: a) the operational circuitry detecting events in a signal captured using the implantable electrodes; b) the operational circuitry determining which detected events to certify for use in rhythm identification by: i) applying analysis of the morphology of a set of detected events in order to identify overdetected events such that, if a likely overdetection is identified, the likely overdetection is not certified; ii) applying analysis to pairs of consecutive events to identify overdetected events using interval and shape characteristics such that, if a likely overdetection is identified, the likely overdetection is not certified; iii) certifying at least some detected events of the set of detected events; and iv) using only certified events to calculate a rate for the patient; c) the operational circuitry determining whether a malignant cardiac rhythm is occurring using certified detected events; wherein the operational circuitry is configured to perform certification in b) even when no arrhythmia has been identified.