Patent Document ID: 8428704
Application ID: 12914536
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A cardiac monitor for detecting a cardiac event, the monitor comprising: (a) a sensor for sensing an analog signal from a human heart; (b) a device coupled to the sensor, the device having an analog-to-digital circuit system contained therein for digitizing the analog signal to produce a digitized waveform; (c) a processor electrically coupled to the analog-to-digital circuit system, said processor configured to: (i) compute a plurality of values of a heart signal parameter from the digitized waveform, the plurality of values of the heart signal parameter being characterized by a plurality of statistical distributions corresponding to a plurality of heart rates, wherein each statistical distribution is characterized by an upper boundary and a lower boundary and a dispersion; (ii) store data pertaining to the plurality of values of the heart signal parameter in a form that enables characteristics of first and second statistical distributions to be computed for first and second heart rates; (iii) determine a boundary value of the heart signal parameter associated with the second heart rate; (iv) determine a measure of the number of data points of the first statistical distribution; (v) operative when the number of data points indicates the first statistical distribution is insufficient, compute a detection threshold associated with the first heart rate, wherein the detection threshold is based on the boundary value of the heart signal parameter associated with the second heart rate; (vi) apply a test to detect a cardiac event, wherein the test is based on the detection threshold.