Patent ID: 7016730

Claim:
A method for extending the battery life of an implantable cardiac rhythm management device, comprising the steps of: a) providing a cardiac rhythm management device having a stimulation pulse generator, a microprocessor-based controller adapted to receive input signals relating to depolarization of at least one cardiac chamber and for providing control signals to the stimulation pulse generator, at least one additional power consuming feature, and a battery power supply coupled to provide electrical energy to the stimulation pulse generator, the microprocessor-based controller and selectively to the additional power consuming feature; b) implanting the cardiac rhythm management device in a patient; c) sensing the patient's heart rate; d) determining when the sensed heart rate ceases to increase sufficiently to accommodate further increase in activity level by averaging the heart rate values where pacing initiates over a predetermined time interval during which patient activity level repeatedly varies between an at rest state and a moderately active state; e) initiating execution of a programmed rate response algorithm by the microprocessor-based controller.