Patent ID: 8046065

Claim:
A method of left ventricular pacing including automated adjustment of an atrio-ventricular (AV) pacing delay interval and intrinsic AV nodal conduction testing comprising—upon expiration or reset of a programmable AV Evaluation Interval (AVEI)—performing the following steps: temporarily increasing a paced AV (PAV) interval and a sensed AV (SAV) interval and a. measuring an intrinsic atrio-ventricular (PR) interval for a right ventricular (RV) chamber and b. testing for AV conduction based on the measured PR interval wherein: in the event that the AV conduction test reveals AV conduction is present, then storing the PR interval in a memory structure; in the event that the AV conduction test reveals an AV conduction block condition then: 1. performing a pacing mode-switch to a bi-ventricular (Bi-V) pacing mode and 2. increasing the magnitude of the AVEI.