Non-Invasive Cardiac Potentiation Therapy
AssigneeMedtronic, Inc.
InventorsJoseph L. Sullivan, Fred W. Chapman, Robert G. Walker, William J. Havel, D. Curtis Deno
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An external cardiac medical device for delivering Cardiac Potentiation Therapy (CPT). Techniques used with the device include initial diagnosis of the patient, delivery of the CPT, and configuration of the external device, so that CPT can be effectively and efficiently provided. In particular, these techniques include initially determining whether a patient should receive CPT, how to set the coupling interval for delivering CPT, how to configure the external medical device to deliver CPT stimulation pulses while not adversely affecting the device's ability to sense a patient's cardiac parameters and/or signals.
Claims20
An external cardiac medical device for delivering cardiac potentiation therapy to a patient, comprising:
- a plurality of electrodes adapted for attachment to external body surfaces of the patient and configured for delivering therapy to the patient;
- a controller electrically connected to the plurality of electrodes;
- and
- a therapy delivery system electrically connected to the plurality of electrodes, the therapy delivery system configured for delivering electrical stimulation pulses to the patient over a series of cardiac cycles to increase the patient's cardiac output, the controller configured for triggering the delivery of the electrical stimulation pulses following one or more of (i) delivery of one or more defibrillation shocks to the patient and (ii) an estimation that cardiac output of the patient is insufficient, the estimation provided via non-invasive assessment of cardiac condition of the patient by one or more of the controller or an operator, the therapy delivery system directed by the controller to deliver the electrical stimulation pulses outside refractory periods of the cardiac cycles.
A computer-readable medium programmed with instructions for performing a method of delivering cardiac potentiation therapy to a patient using an external cardiac medical device, the medium comprising instructions for causing a programmable processor to:
- attain either pre-set coupling intervals programmed within the programmable processor of the external cardiac medical device or defined coupling intervals based on cardiac information of the patient, the cardiac information being monitored non-invasively and comprising one or more of cardiac signals and hemodynamic parameters;
- and
- deliver electrical stimulation pulses to the patient over a series of cardiac cycles of the patient, the electrical stimulation pulses delivered according to the attained pre-set coupling intervals or defined coupling intervals, the electrical stimulation pulses delivered outside refractory periods of the cardiac cycles in order to increase cardiac output of the patient.
A method for delivering cardiac potentiation therapy to a patient using an external cardiac medical device, comprising:
- delivering electrical stimulation pulses to the patient over a series of cardiac cycles of the patient in order to increase the cardiac output of the patient following one or more of (i) delivery of one or more defibrillation shocks to the patient and (ii) an estimation that the patient's cardiac output is insufficient, the estimation provided via non-invasive assessment of cardiac condition of the patient, the electrical stimulation pulses delivered outside refractory periods of the cardiac cycles;
- halting delivery of the electrical stimulation pulses after a period of time;
- assessing whether hemodynamics of the patient deteriorate using cardiac information of the patient which is attained non-invasively, the cardiac information comprising one or more of cardiac signals and hemodynamic parameters;
- and
- repeating the delivering, halting, and assessing steps if the hemodynamics of the patient are found to deteriorate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.