Patent ID: 7761163

Claim:
A heart stimulator comprising: an atrial pacing electrode; an atrial stimulation pulse generator coupled with the atrial pacing electrode, said atrial stimulation pulse generator configured to generate atrial stimulation pulses having an adjustable strength; a ventricular pacing electrode; a ventricular stimulation pulse generator coupled with the ventricular pacing electrode; an atrial sensing channel comprising an atrial sensing unit configured to process an electrical signal originating from an atrium of a heart and to detect atrial depolarization/contraction events and to output an atrial sense signal upon detection of an atrial event selected from said atrial depolarization/contraction events; a ventricular sensing channel comprising a ventricular sensing unit configured to process an electrical signal originating from a ventricle of said heart and to detect ventricular depolarization/contraction events and to output a ventricular sense signal upon detection of a ventricular event selected from said ventricular depolarization/contraction events; and, a control unit being coupled with said atrial stimulation pulse generator, said ventricular stimulation pulse generator, said atrial sensing channel and said ventricular sensing channel wherein said control unit is configured to adjust atrial stimulation pulse strength and to perform an automatic atrial capture threshold test wherein said atrial capture threshold test is configured to trigger a sequence of a predetermined number of Y atrial stimulation pulses in a ventricular event based inhibited mode with an overdrive rate set higher than an intrinsic heart rate of said heart and wherein said atrial capture threshold test is further configured to count a number X of atrial sense events corresponding to said sequence of said predetermined number of Y atrial stimulation pulses, wherein Y is greater than one and wherein X is equal to or greater than zero and is less than or equal to Y and wherein X is compared to a predetermined threshold to determine either capture or loss of capture.