Patent ID: 8682427

Claim:
A single-chamber heart stimulator including a. an at least partially electrically conductive stimulator housing; b. a first detection unit that is: (1) connected to, or configured for connection to, a ventricular electrode lead, and (2) configured to identify signal features characteristic of ventricular heartbeats within a first electrocardiogram signal recorded through a pair of ventricular electrodes on the ventricular electrode lead which are situated solely in a ventricle; c. a second detection unit that is: (1) connected to, or configured for connection to, second electrocardiogram electrodes including: (a) at least one of the ventricular electrodes of the ventricular electrode lead, and (b) the stimulator housing, (2) configured to identify signal features characteristic of atrial heartbeats within a second electrocardiogram signal recorded through the second electrocardiogram electrodes; d. a VT/SVT discrimination unit: (1) connected to the first detection unit and the second detection unit, and (2) configured to discriminate between ventricular and supraventricular tachycardias based on both: (a) the ventricular heartbeats identified through the first detection unit, and (b) the atrial heartbeats identified through the second detection unit, whenever the rate of the identified ventricular heartbeats exceeds a threshold value.