초록 ▼

Disclosed is a system for detecting a myocardial infarction (i.e., a heart attack) at the earliest possible time and promptly warning the patient that he should immediately seek medical care. Specifically, a first embodiment of the present invention has an implantable electronic system that can sens

Disclosed is a system for detecting a myocardial infarction (i.e., a heart attack) at the earliest possible time and promptly warning the patient that he should immediately seek medical care. Specifically, a first embodiment of the present invention has an implantable electronic system that can sense a change in the patient's electrogram that is indicative of a myocardial infarction. If a myocardial infarction is sensed, the device would then cause an implantable or externally located alarm means such as an audio sound to be actuated to warn the patient of his condition. The patient could then promptly seek medical care, for example, at a hospital emergency room. Having been trained to recognize such an alarm, most patient would neither fail to recognize such an indication of a myocardial infarction nor would they ignore such an alarm signal if it were to occur. Since an implantable heart pacemaker or defibrillator already has within its structure many of the elements required for the device to recognize a myocardial infarction, it would be expeditious to add a capability to these existing devices to detect a myocardial infarction and provide an implantable or external alarm means to inform the patient to take appropriate action.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [24.]24. A system adapted for implantation within a human subject for the treatment of disorders of the heart, the system comprising an implanted electronic device for detecting and treating disorders of the heart of the human subjects, the implanted electronic device being a

[ What is claimed is:] [24.]24. A system adapted for implantation within a human subject for the treatment of disorders of the heart, the system comprising an implanted electronic device for detecting and treating disorders of the heart of the human subjects, the implanted electronic device being a combination of a heart pacemaker and a cardiosaver, the heart pacemaker having heart pacemaker electronics circuitry adapted for providing electrical pulses to pace the heart and the cardiosaver having cardiosaver electronics circuitry adapted for detecting the occurrence of a myocardial infarction, the cardiosaver also having alarm means for alarming the human subject when a myocardial infarction is occurring.