Method and apparatus for determing the coronary sinus vein branch accessed by a coronary sinus lead

A system for determining the position of an electrode in a patient's heart, the system comprising:

• an electrode;
• and
• a processing device configured to receive a first cardiac electrical signal representative of a first electrical event sensed repeatedly by the electrode over a time window spanning a plurality of heartbeats and a second cardiac electrical signal representative of a second electrical event repeatedly sensed by the electrode over the time window, and to calculate a position of the electrode in or near the heart based at least in part upon a comparison of an average time interval between the first and second electrical events during each heartbeat within the time window to a threshold value;
• and
• wherein the processing device is configured to determine, based on the average time interval, whether the electrode has a lateral/posterior position or an anterior position.

A method for determining a position of an electrode located in a ventricle area of a patient's heart, the method comprising:

• detecting a first depolarization for each of a plurality of intracardiac depolarization wavefronts sensed by the electrode over a time window spanning a plurality of heartbeats;
• detecting a second depolarization event for each of the plurality of intracardiac depolarization wavefronts sensed by the electrode over the time window;
• measuring a plurality of first time intervals between the first depolarization event and the second depolarization event occurring during each heartbeat within the time window;
• computing an average time interval based on the first time intervals measured over the time window;
• and
• determining from the average time interval whether the electrode has a lateral/posterior position or an anterior position within the ventricle area.