Patent ID: 8346350

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a cardiac rhythm management device comprising: an atrial activation sensing circuit configured to sense an atrial activation of a subject; a tachyarrhythmia detection circuit configured to detect whether tachyarrhythmia is present in a subject; and a processor, coupled to the atrial activation sensing circuit and the tachyarrhythmia detection circuit, the processor configured to: compare a characteristic of the atrial activation present just before the tachyarrhythmia was detected to a characteristic of the atrial activation during the detected tachyarrhythmia, wherein the characteristic of the atrial activation includes an atrial rate; determine whether the atrial rate during the detected tachyarrhythmia is increased from the atrial rate present just before the tachyarrhythmia was detected; and use the comparison to determine a hemodynamic stability characteristic of the tachyarrhythmia, including: declaring that the tachyarrhythmia is hemodynamically unstable when it is determined that the atrial rate during the detected tachyarrhythmia is increased from the atrial rate present just before the tachyarrhythmia was detected; and declaring that the tachyarrhythmia is hemodynamically stable when it is determined that the atrial rate during the detected tachyarrhythmia is not increased from the atrial rate present just before the tachyarrhythmia was detected.