Implantable cardiac stimulation device for and method of monitoring progression or regression of heart disease by monitoring interchamber conduction delays

In an implantable cardiac stimulation device, a system for monitoring progression or regression of a patient's heart disease, the system comprising:

• sensing means for sensing a heart activity signal representing electrical activity of the patient's heart;
• detecting means for detecting cardiac events in the heart activity signal;
• determining means responsive to the detecting means for determining interchamber conduction delays of the heart, wherein the determining means monitors the progression or regression of the heart disease by determining relative changes in the interchamber conduction delays over time;
• and
• memory means for storing the interchamber conduction delays for later analysis.

In an implantable cardiac stimulation device, a method of monitoring progression or regression of a patient's heart disease, the method comprising the steps of:

• generating an electrogram of the patient's heart;
• processing the electrogram signal to identify cardiac events in the heart activity signal;
• deriving from the cardiac event identifications of interchamber conduction delays of the patient's heart by monitoring the progression or regression of the heart disease by determining relative changes in the interchamber conduction delays over time;
• and
• storing the interchamber conduction delays in a memory for later review.

In an implantable cardiac stimulation device, a system that monitors progression or regression of a patient's heart disease, the system comprising:

• a pulse generator that provides simultaneous multi-chamber pacing pulses corresponding first and second chambers of the patient's heart, the multi-chamber pacing pulses having energies suitable to cause evoked responses of the first chamber and result in intrinsic contractions of the second chamber;
• a detector that detects the intrinsic contractions;
• a processor, coupled to the detector, that determines interchamber conduction delays between the corresponding chambers, wherein the processor monitors the progression or regression of the patients heart disease by determining relative changes in the interchamber conduction delays over time;
• and
• a memory that stores the interchamber conduction delays for later analysis.