초록 ▼

An extra-corporeal, self-contained, on-line, beat-to-beat pacemaker function analyzer (PFA) for automatic evaluation and indication of the quality of performance of cardiac pacing systems implanted in place for: routine examination of ambulatory patients; long-term surveillance of hospitalized patie

An extra-corporeal, self-contained, on-line, beat-to-beat pacemaker function analyzer (PFA) for automatic evaluation and indication of the quality of performance of cardiac pacing systems implanted in place for: routine examination of ambulatory patients; long-term surveillance of hospitalized patients; and examination of ECG traces (including pacing artefacts) of remote pacemaker patients, transferred by telephone or radio to a central follow-up station. The PFA provides a comprehensive examination of asynchronous, demand and demand-hysteresis pacemakers of all makes, including the state of the pacemaker\s battery, the intactness of the electronic circuitry and of the electrodes, and the proper location of the electrodes in the heart.

대표청구항 ▼

A method for automatically evaluating the quality of the performance of a cardiac pacing system including a human heart and an electronic pacemaker, said method operating in a beat-to-beat on-line manner, comprising the steps of: continuously sensing the electrical pontentials appearing on the body

A method for automatically evaluating the quality of the performance of a cardiac pacing system including a human heart and an electronic pacemaker, said method operating in a beat-to-beat on-line manner, comprising the steps of: continuously sensing the electrical pontentials appearing on the body surface of the human whose heart is part of the cardiac pacing system; determining the presence of a pacing artifact in said electrical potentials by analyzing for the presence of an artifact peak and comparing said peak\s shape to the known shape of an artifact signal; marking the appearance of each said pacing artifact by generating a pacing artifact determinant pulse signal defined in time and duration; determining the presence in said electrical potentials of a QRS signal of either a spontaneous, paced separate or paced fused nature, including the steps of determining for the presence of a peak, comparing said peaks\s shape to the known shape of a spontaneous or paced separate QRS peak, analyzing the time interval between the QRS peak and the occurrence of the previous pacing artifact, and analyzing the integral of the electrical potentials throughout a predetermined time interval after the occurrence of a pacing artifact; marking the appearance of each said QRS signal by generating a QRS determinant pulse signal defined in time and duration; and evaluating the interrelation between the heart and the pacemaker and the quality of the pacemaker function by analyzing the interrelationship of said pacing artifact and QRS determinant pulses.