Patent ID: 8676317

Claim:
A method for estimating the defibrillation impedance of a pair of implanted electrodes, said method comprising: a) performing the following X times, where X is at least equal to N: delivering a series of N different types of low-voltage pulses between the pair of electrodes; for each type of low-voltage pulse delivered, measuring the resistance (R) between the pair of electrodes to obtain a resistance value; delivering a high-voltage defibrillation shock between the electrodes; and measuring the impedance between the electrodes resulting from the defibrillation shock to obtain an impedance value (Z); b) determining a plurality of weight coefficients (K), each corresponding to one of the N different types of low-voltage pulses by processing the resistance values and the impedance values; c) subsequently delivering the series of N different types of low-voltage pulse between the pair of electrodes and measuring corresponding resistances for each type of low-voltage pulse; and d) processing the corresponding resistances and the weight coefficients to obtain the estimated defibrillation impedance for the pair of electrodes.