Patent ID: 8233980

Claim:
In an implantable cardiac stimulation device, a method comprising: obtaining characteristics of true atrial events during normal sinus rhythm including one or more of true atrial event intervals, true atrial event patterns and true atrial event morphology; and subsequently detecting for true atrial events during a post-ventricular atrial blanking (PVAB) interval as follows: predicting whether a true atrial event is expected to occur during the PVAB interval based on one or more of the previously obtained characteristics of true atrial events; if a true atrial event is expected to occur during the PVAB, then examining an atrial sensing channel signal during the PVAB interval to identify any electrical events therein exceeding a predetermined sensing threshold, each of said identified events being designated a candidate atrial event; and for each candidate atrial event, determining whether the candidate atrial event is a true atrial event by comparing characteristics of the candidate atrial event and the previously obtained characteristics of true atrial events.