Patent ID: 8326422

Claim:
A method for monitoring a patient's level of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), for use by an implanted system including an implanted cardiac device and at least one implanted lead, the method comprising: (a) pacing at least one ventricle for a period of time to provoke a ventricular evoked response; (b) obtaining a ventricular intracardiac electrogram (IEGM) indicative of the ventricular evoked response during the period of time; (c) determining, based on the ventricular IEGM, at least one ventricular evoked response metric for the period of time; and (d) monitoring the patient's level of BNP based on at least one ventricular evoked response metric determined at step (c), wherein monitoring the patient's level of BNP includes: estimating a patient's level of BNP or estimating a change in the patient's level of BNP.