Methods and apparatus for detecting cardiac events based on heart rate sensitive parameters
AssigneeAngel Medical Systems, Inc.
InventorsDavid R. Fischell, Jonathan Harwood, Steven R. Johnson, Bruce Hopenfeld
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Abstract
A system for the detection of cardiac events occurring in a human patient is provided. At least two electrodes are included in the system for obtaining an electrical signal from a patient's heart. An electrical signal processor is electrically coupled to the electrodes for processing the electrical signal and applying tests to determine whether a cardiac event has occurred. When the processor detects some types of changes in heart rate, event detection is altered or suspended for a period of time.
Claims13
A cardiac event detection system for detecting a cardiac event in a patient comprising:
- (a) at least two sensors for sensing an analog signal from said patient's heart;
- (b) a device coupled to said sensors, said device having an analog-to-digital circuit system contained therein for digitizing said analog signal to produce a digitized waveform;
- (c) a processor contained in said device and electrically coupled to said analog-to-digital circuit system, said processor configured to:
- (i) compute from the digitized waveform heart rate information;
- (ii) based on the heart rate information, determine whether a change in heart rate has occurred;
- (iii) responsive to a determination that a change in heart rate has occurred, determine the relative time the change in heart rate occurred;
- (iv) responsive to the determination that a change in heart rate has occurred, based on the relative timing of the change in heart rate, selectively apply a first test to detect a cardiac event.
A cardiac event detection system for detecting a cardiac event in a patient comprising:
- (a) at least two sensors for sensing an analog signal from said patient's heart;
- (b) a device coupled to said sensors, said device having an analog-to-digital circuit system contained therein for digitizing said analog signal to produce a digitized waveform;
- and,
- (c) a processor contained in said device and electrically coupled to said analog-to-digital circuit system, said processor configured to:
- (i) compute from the digitized waveform heart rate information;
- (ii) based on the heart rate information, determine whether a change in heart rate has occurred;
- (iii) responsive to a determination that a change in heart rate has occurred, determine the relative time the change in heart rate occurred;
- (iv) responsive to the determination that a change in heart rate has occurred, based on the relative timing of the change in heart rate, determine a type of response to generate;
- and
- (v) selectively applying a test based on the relative timing of the change in heart rate, and wherein the generation of a response that indicates a cardiac event has occurred is based on the outcome of the test.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.