Systems and methods for automated capture threshold testing and associated his bundle pacing

A cardiac stimulation system adapted to deliver impulses for pacing a His bundle of a patient heart using a stimulation electrode and to sense response characteristics of the His bundle and a ventricle of the patient heart using one or more sensing electrodes in response to impulses delivered by the stimulation electrode, the stimulation system comprising:

• a pulse generator adapted to generate electrical impulses for pacing the His bundle;
• a processor communicatively coupled to the pulse generator and adapted to receive response characteristics from the one or more sensing electrodes;
• and
• a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory including instructions executable by the processor that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• initialize one or more output settings of the stimulation system, by:
• accessing a table stored in the memory, the table including a plurality of entries, each entry including a respective output setting and a respective classification, the classification indicating whether the output setting results in capture of one or both of the His bundle and a ventricle of the patient heart;
• identifying, from the table, a lowest-energy output setting classified as resulting in capture of at least the His bundle or, if no impulse is classified as resulting in capture of the His bundle, as resulting in capture of the ventricle;
• configuring the output settings of the stimulation system based on the lowest-energy output setting;
• and
• applying, using the stimulation electrode, an impulse to the patient heart using the output settings.