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US 5,314,448 AGranted
Process for defibrillation pretreatment of a heart
AssigneeAngeion Corporation
InventorsMark W. Kroll, Theodore P. Adams
Life of this patent
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AssigneeAngeion Corporation
InventorsMark W. Kroll, Theodore P. Adams
Estimating the term…
The present invention is a process to apply an electrical pretreatment to a fibrillating heart that begins the process of organizing the action of the chaotically contracting myocardial cells, so that the defibrillating waveform applied after the pretreatment can accomplish its task with less energy than would otherwise be required. The same electrodes are employed for both pretreatment and defibrillation. In one preferred embodiment a long-duration, low-voltage pretreatment pulse is generated directly by battery and voltage-conversion circuitry, and is followed by the defibrillation pulse delivered from the previously charged capacitor. In variations on this embodiment, the capacitor is charged during the pretreatment pulse, or between the pretreatment and defibrillation pulses. In other preferred embodiments, pretreatment consists of a train of pulses of appreciably lower energy than the defibrillation pulse, and with inter-pulse time adjusted so that necessary capacitor recharging can be accomplished, so that the same capacitor (a component of dominant size) can be used for all pretreatment pulses and for the defibrillation pulse as well. Wide-ranging variations of pulse duration, height spacing and waveform are included, as well as selected polarity inversions.
A process for the electrical pretreatment of a fibrillating heart comprising:
A process for the electrical pretreatment of a fibrillating heart comprising:
A process for the electrical pretreatment of a fibrillating heart comprising:
A process for the electrical pretreatment of a fibrillating heart comprising:
A process for the electrical pretreatment of a fibrillating heart comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.