Intermittent stress augmentation pacing for cardioprotective effect
AssigneeCardiac Pacemakers, Inc.
InventorsFrits Prinzen, Richard Cornelussen, Ward Vanagt, Joseph Pastore, Julio Spinelli
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Abstract
A device and method for delivering electrical stimulation to the heart in a manner which provides a protective effect against subsequent ischemia is disclosed. The protective effect is produced by configuring a cardiac pacing device to intermittently switch from a normal operating mode to a stress augmentation mode in which the spatial pattern of depolarization is varied to thereby subject a particular region or regions of the ventricular myocardium to increased mechanical stress.
Claims20
A cardiac rhythm management device, comprising:
- a pacing channel for delivering pacing pulses to a selected ventricular myocardial site;
- a controller for controlling the delivery of pacing pulses in accordance with a programmed pacing mode;
- wherein the controller is programmed to intermittently switch from a normal operating mode to a stress augmentation mode in which a particular region or regions of the ventricular myocardium are subjected to increased mechanical stress as compared with the stress experienced by those regions during the normal operating mode.
A method for operating a cardiac rhythm management device, comprising intermittently switching from a normal operating mode to a stress augmentation mode in which a particular region or regions of the ventricular myocardium are subjected to increased mechanical stress as compared with the stress experienced by those regions during the normal operating mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.