Patent Document ID: 20110130802
Application ID: 13024120
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for setting a stimulation level for stimulating an autonomic nervous system (ANS), the method comprising: automatically performing an auto-threshold test, including stimulating an autonomic neural target in the ANS, wherein stimulating the autonomic neural target includes stepping through a plurality of stimulation levels; performing a threshold test for each of the stimulation levels, wherein performing the threshold test includes: inducing a premature ventricular contraction (PVC) event or detecting an intrinsic PVC event; detecting pre-PVC heart rate data and post-PVC heart rate data; measuring heart rate turbulence (HRT) in response to the PVC event using the pre-PVC heart rate data and the post-PVC heart rate data; and determining, using the measured HRT, whether the stimulation level provides threshold stimulation; and setting the stimulation level for stimulating the ANS based on the threshold test for each of the stimulation levels.